all the blind of consanguineous parentage, while all the blind from
scrofula were 1.8 per cent of all the blind. Consanguinity, then,
seems appreciably to intensify scrofula, but there is no indication
that scrofula is ever caused by parental consanguinity.

[Footnote 59: Bemiss, see _Trans. of Am. Med. Asso._, vol. xi, 1858,
p. 420.]

[Footnote 60: _The Blind and the Deaf._ Special Report of 12th Census,
1906.]




CHAPTER V

CONSANGUINITY AND MENTAL DEFECT


Idiocy, perhaps more than any other disease or defect, has long been
connected in the popular mind with the marriage of cousins. This fact
is not surprising when we consider that until very recent times idiots
were looked upon with a kind of superstitious awe, and the affliction
was supposed to be a curse of God. For this reason, when idiocy did
follow consanguineous marriage as it sometimes would, it was believed
to be the fit punishment of some violation of divine law. Insanity
also frequently has been attributed to consanguineous marriage, but
not so frequently as idiocy, since its occurrence later in life is not
so obviously connected with pre-natal conditions.