Intermarriage, or, How and why beauty, health and intellect result from certain unions, and deformity, disease and insanity from others

Front matter

2250081061

Med

INTERMARRIAGE:

Dedication

TO

THOMAS ANDREW KNIGHT, ESQ., F.R.S. & L.S.,

President of the Horticultural Society, &c., &c., &c.

Introduction

We are aware that there is a class of persons who condemn all works of a physiological character addressed to general readers ; who seem to regard Physiology — that science which teaches us all we know of the laws of Life — as “ the tree of knowledge of good and evil,” the taste of whose fruit, if not like Eve’s transgression, death to our physical being> is still fatal to all refinement and delicacy of soul ! Accordingly, it is not strange to find such persons condemning every kind and degree of knowledge relating to our wonderful organization, and the still more wonderful functions of our curiously constructed organs. Believing, as we conscientiously do, that this is nothing more nor less than a false delicacy, a perverted sensibility — that such opinions, whether pretended or real, spring from inexcusable ignorance, or still more, inexcusable prejudice, we embrace the occasion of laying before the reader at the hazard of being considered out of place, a few of the many reasons in favour of a general diffusion of Physiological science.

In the first place, such knowledge is intimately connected with the preservation of health. As this depends on an observance of the natural laws, it would seem to follow that an acquaintance with these laws is essential to the attainment of this object. The man, for example, who has learned the effects of alcohol upon the delicate tissue of the vital organs might be guarded in its use, or abstain from it altogether. He who understands the structure of the human skin, and the important office which it performs by means of its millions of pores, will properly appreciate the importance of cleanliness and the danger

XXII

Introduction.

of suddenly checking the insensible transpiration. The individual who has studied the laws of development;, and knows how all the organs are matured and strengthened by exercise, will avoid the numerous evils consequent on inactivity and indolence. The female, who understands the wonderful and complicated function of respiration — how the free and full expansion of the lungs is necessary to the complete vitalization of the blood — that fluid which carries life, and health, and vigour to every fibre in the system, will, most certainly, shun tight-lacing, and all other practices which irnnede this trulv vital function. The parent also, who has learned the delicate texture of the instrument of thought — the brain, will, instead of encouraging mental precocity in his offspring, rather aim to suppress ail unnatural development ; and pursue such a course as is rather calculated to produce early physical than mental superiority. He also who has attended to the process of healthy digestion, and marked the causes bv which it is imneded, will know how to preserve the integrity of this important function by avoiding all those influences which interfere with its regular performance. And lastly, the invalid, suffering under a load of disease, the effect of causes which he might, and doubtless would, have escaped had he been acquainted with his own structure, or the relations of its different parts to each other and to external objects ; even he, for the want of this knowledge, stands but a feeble chance of recovery, as he cannot properly appreciate the advice of his medical attendant, and yields either a reluctant consent to prescriptions given or, which is more likely still, disregards them altogether. We might pursue this kind of illustration at great length, and show, step by step, the connection between physiological knowledge, and the preservation and recovery of health. But it is unnecessary ; our object is attained if the attention of the reader is excited ; satisfied as we are that a little reflection will lead him to a safe and correct conclusion.

In the second place, an acquaintance with Physiology is the only certain and sure preventive against the dangers and

XXlll evils of empiricism. That some antidote is required for these no one will deny. The unblushing impudence and pretension, displayed in the countless quack advertisements of our periodical prints, are without a parallel in the history of any age or nation, and speak little in favour of the intelligence and good sense oi the public. From the cancer-quack, whose arsenical plaster draws out, at the same time with the disease, the life of the unhappy sufferer, to the shameless female, whose pills “ are not to be given during a certain condition,” and whose effects are often death, to both parent and offspring — all seem to ply their death-dealing trade, with reckless rapacity, and generally fatal consequences. But this is a free , a gloriously free country, and the good people have a perfect right, if they choose, to get themselves, and families poisoned by wholesale or retail, by habitual pill-swallowing, plaster-application, or any other mode more in fashion. A slight knowledge of the structure of the human frame, and those laws that regulate its functions, in health and disease, would soon lead them, at the same time, to avoid the causes of disease, and those pretenders, whose measures are far more likely to render it fatal, when present, than to contribute towards its removal.

In the third place, physiological science is of the very highest importance in the education of our race, and. therefore to mothers. Dr. Southwood Smith remarks : “ The communication of the knowledge and the formation of the habits, which are necessary to the due performance of the duties of women, constitute no essential part of their education ; the direct tendency of a great part of their education is to produce and foster opinions, feelings, and tastes, which positively disqualify them for the performance of their duties. All would be well if the marriage ceremony, which transforms the girl into the wife, conferred upon the wife the qualities which should be possessed by the mother. But it is rare to find a person capable of the least difficult part of education, namely that of communicating instruction, even after diligent study with a direct view to teaching ; yet an ordinary girl, brought up in the

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Introduction.

ordinary mode, in the ordinary domestic circle, is entrusted witli the direction and control of the first impressions that are made upon the human being, and the momentous physical, intellectual, and moral results that arise out of those impressions. Women are the earliest teachers ; they must be nurses ; they can be neither, without the risk of doing incalculable mischief unless they have some acquaintance with physiology. On these grounds I rest their obligation to study it, and I look upon that notion of delicacy which would exclude them from knowledge calculated in an extraordinary degree, to open, exalt, and purify their minds, and to fit them for the performance of their duties, as alike degrading to those to whom it affects to show respect, and debasing to the mind that entertains it.”

The author treats of neither of the above departments of physiological science, but striking out comparatively a new path, and going back to the period before birth, he endeavours to establish such rules and observances as tend to the physical as well as moralperfection of our species. He has aimed, so to speak, to forestall the bodily deformities and mental obliquities so frequently met with, and bv pointing out certain laws, well known to the scientific agriculturist, to raise the standard of human perfectibility to its highest point of attainment. He has succeeded in demonstrating the inseparable connection between beauty, health, and sound intellect, and perfect physical organization, and explained how deformity, disease, and imbecility of mind and body result from certain causes. He has shown how marriages among blood-relations tend to the degeneracy of the offspring, and thus illustrating the wisdom of those Levitical regulations which have appeared to some sceptics as arbitrary, and not founded in nature. From a careful analysis, and a train of inductive reasoning, he has deduced the important fact that the means of improving general organization and beauty of countenance in progeny are subject in a great degree to the control of man ; and hence it follows that it is the duty of every man who aspires to be the father of a family to become acquainted with these facts and rules which insure such invaluable results.

Introduction.

xxv

Indeed, there is nothing either in morals or religion, in Scripture or tradition, in reason or common-sense, which forbids man from availing himself in his choice of a companion of all the knowledge, whether deduced from observation, or science, or both, which enables him to leave to his children a legacy more valuable than riches or noble blood, health, strength, a sound nhvsical and mental organization “mens sana, in cornore sano.” On the contrary, every thing, both in nature and revelation, goes to show that it is his imperative duty to avail himself of all these advantages, and that he would incur a fearful responsibility if he knowingly selected a partner whose offspring would inherit a trait of hereditary insanity, imbecility, or bodily deformity. Those who understand the hereditary nature of diseases, how the sins of the parents are literally visited upon the children unto the third and fourth generation, will need no arguments to convince them of the importance of information on this subject. To those who are not acquainted with this fact, the following case may be valuable by way of illustration.

A gentleman, with whom the writer is acquainted, married a lady whose mother had, for many years, been afflicted with insanity, and whose brother was at the very time of the marriage resident in a lunatic asylum. Her nervous system was peculiarly susceptible, and she possessed that high order of intellect and genius which belongs to such a delicate organization. In less than three years she became hopelessly insane, and is now an inmate of a lunatic retreat, and the onlv child to whom she has given birth shows every indication of having inherited its mother’s peculiarities. But we need not detail

A.

cases ; — the reader’s own observation will furnish sufficient facts on this subject.

In presenting the following work to the public, we have only, in conclusion, to remark that, if some passages appear obnoxious to the charge of indelicacy, our only answer is, “ to the pure all things are pure.” c‘ Honi soit qui mal y pense.”

A.B.

PUBLISHER’S NOTE.

The Publisher of the present Edition of Alexander Walker s good old work on Intermarriage hopes he is meeting a long felt want in supplying the thoughtful public with a Cheap Edition of a work that has become enhanced in value through its intrinsic merits .

Section I. — Laws of Resemblance

I. Law of Selection, where both Parents are of the same Variety ........

1. Organs communicated by one Parent — the Anterior

2. Organs communicated by the other Parent — the Posterior Series .......

Explanation of the Accompaniment of the particular Organs in each .......

Either Parent may give either Series ....

Slight Illustrations .......

Various Corroborations both as to Man and Animals Mode of verifying this Law, by examining Parents and Children ........

Influence of the Posterior Organs upon the Anterior ones, and vice versa .......

Cause of the Division of the Mental or Thinking System . Hypothesis as to the Increased Energy of that System The Directions of its Functions Hereditary .

Explanation of the Differences in the Features of Children, who yet resemble the same Parent ....

Importance of this Law ......

II. Law of Crossing, where each Parent is of a different \ ariety III. Law of In-and-in Breeding, where both Parents are of the same Family ...

Page

91 93

Contents. xxix

Page

V. Law of Maternal Nutrition ..... 161

Section IV. — As to the Mental System . . . 264 LIST OF PLATES

I. — The Duke and Duchess of Kent and Queen Victoria, as affording a General Illustration of the Law of Selection. (See page 91.) To face the Title.

II. — Napoleon, Maria Louisa, and their Son, as serving the same purpose.

III. — Front View of a Father, Mother, and two Sons, more

minutely illustrating the Law of Selection.

IV. — Profile View of the same, serving the same purpose,

V. — Front View of a Father, Mother, and two Daughters illustrating the Influence of the Posterior Organs upon the Anterior ones.

VI. — Profile View of the same, serving the same purpose.

VII. — Figures 1 and 2 — Front and Profile of a Mulatto, illustrating the Law of Crossing’ : Figures 3 and 4 — Front and Profile View of a Sambo, serving the same purpose.

VIII. — Bantam Fowls, illustrating the effects of Breeding In-and-in.

INTERMARRIAGE.

NOMENCLATURE.

In the present work the animal body is assumed to consist of three classes of organs and functions, viz. : —

1. The Locomotive organs and functions, consisting of

(a) The bones.

Limbs. (b) The ligaments which connect the bones.

(c) The muscles which move them.

2. The Vital or Nutritive organs and functions, consisting of

(a) Lacteals, which absorb nutritious matter from food.

Trunk. (b) Blood vessels.

(c) Various glands , secreting or depositing various substances, including fat, milk, hair, or wool, &c.

All these consist of tubes, exercising a 'pulsating motion , of which the trunk of the body is the centre and principal seat.

3. Mental or Thinking organs : —

(a) Eye , ear , &c., receiving impressions from external bodies.

Head. (b) A brain which perceives, compares, reflects, &c.

(c) A cerebel or little brain, which wills, and con sequently throws the muscles into action.

II Ill

*

.

* iv

V

VI

VI 1

-I

PART I.

PHYSIOLOGICAL CONDITIONS CONNECTED WITH, AND

TERMINATING IN, LOYE.

Section I

PUBERTY. ITS PERIOD. THE CHANGES CAUSED BY IT.

Puberty and its Period.

Man, in common with the more perfect animals, is not born with the faculty of immediately producing his like. The organs which, at a future period, perform that important function, appear to remain entirely torpid long after birth ; and the appetites connected with them do not exist.

As, moreover, the infancy of man is longer, so is his puberty, or the period when the reproductive faculty is coming into action, more tardy than that of the other races of animals.

In the human race in particular, the most general difference as to the period of puberty, is attached to the difference of sex. Puberty is universally earlier in woman than in man.

Some authors, says Poussel, “ have derived the reason of that difference from the smallness of the organs of woman :

B o

Conditions Terminating in Love.

they observe that she is sooner fit for reproduction, because her organs being smaller, are earlier formed, and the organic or nutritive molecules which contribute to their formation and development, become an excess destined to reproduction. The circumstance of the smallness of the organs of woman is, indeed, favourable to this opinion ; and it. is reasonable to suppose that nature is not occupied about the species until the individual is perfected. But this order is often inverted ; we frequently see marriageable girls who have not attained their full growth.”

I have quoted this passage at length, because it expresses not merelv a common and universal error, but a fundamental one, and I am anxious to correct it.

The immediate cause of the earlier puberty of woman is the circumstance that her vital or nutritive system is proportionally larger than that of man. In early life, the three classes of organs and functions — the locomotive, the vital or nutritive, and the mental or thinking systems, bear the same proportion to each other in woman as in man ; and the girl is scarcely distinguishable from the boy. In woman, this proportion is gradually departed from ; her vital system, occupying chiefly the trunk, becomes larger in general, as well as in particular parts ; it grows out of proportion to the other two systems — occupying chiefly the head, or composing the limbs ; its functions follow its structure ; and hence alone the earliness of that aggregate of them which is denominated puberty.

The imputation of disproportion to the vital or nutritive

svstem of woman is not here made without due reflection. It %!

has not been understood or noticed ; but it really exists- Observation will show that this disproportion is absent in early life ; that it takes place at puberty ; that it alone enables woman to discharge all her peculiar functions ; and that, when it is useless for these purposes, it secretes the adipose substance which distinguishes the period of fatness, which the French call he age de retour , or, shrivelling up, leaves flacciaity and deformity in its place.

Puberty , Its Period , etc.

Hence, an old woman is a kind of new being, differing from the mature woman in all her chief characteristics ; and so odd is this felt to be by the vulgar that it is sometimes made by them the subject of ridicule or of reproach. No change so remarkable takes place in man, because there has in him been no necessary out-of- proportion in any of the systems.

This final change in woman is the more remarkable because old age in her is, in other respects, less marked than in man ; her hair does not become grey so speedily ; she rarely becomes bald ; and, with little suffering, she in general attains an advanced age.

That this disproportionate development of the vital system is the cause of the earlier puberty of woman is further illustrated by the time at which some varieties of the human species attain that period, independent of such influences as climate, aliment, temperament, &c.

i.

This is remarkable in the Mongolic or north-eastern broadfaced variety. Not only in China and Japan, but even in countries much colder than our own, does puberty commence in the femaie sex much earlier than with us. A French writer asserts that a Kalmuc or a Siberian woman of the Mongolian race is marriageable at the age of thirteen even in a climate as cold as that of Sweden, whilst a Swedish female is scarcely so at fifteen or sixteen ; that, still further north, and even on the confines of the icv sea, the Samoeides are nubile at eleven, and are frequently mothers at twelve ; that the women of Lapland begin to evince maturity at twelve ; and that the same aopears to be the case with all the races of the polar regions — as the Ostiacs, the Yakoutes, the Kamschatdales, and even the American Esquimaux.

This precocity has, indeed, been assigned to other causes than that to which I have ascribed it. Virey imagines that the early arrival at puberty amongst Mongolic nations may arise partly from the smallness of their stature, but, in a great measure, from the nature of their fish diet, which is supposed to be of a stimulating and aphrodisiac quality, and from dwelling continually in subterraneous places subject to the suffocating heat produced by the vapour of water poured upon hot stones.

The inadequacy of these causes, which apply but to a few of the Mongolic tribes, is evident to every observer of nature. But no one can notice the large vital svstem of the north-eastern people without discovering a sufficient cause for this precocity, in the vast development of that system. In all the sketches of women of the Mongolic variety, which have been furnished by our recent voyagers, the trunk, which contains the principal organs of that class, is large, the abdomen wide and prominent, the mammte extensive, and their habits as to food correspond. These natural organic causes apply, moreover, to all the women of the Mongolic variety, whether they inhabit cold, or temperate, or warm climates ; and they can alone account for the early precocity of all. It is a miserable physiology which, finding an event common to a whole race, must seek, like this of Virey, a different cause for the same event in everv different section of that race.

Upon the same natural principle, which I have now pointed out and illustrated, there are also some families and some individuals in whom we may expect this precocity.

Peculiar temperament naturally produces, in each person, some variation in the period of puberty. A girl of sanguine temperament must be earlier subject to a condition characterised by fullness of the circulating system and general excitement, than one in whom the lymphatic temperament predominates.

Such is the great natural, organic and fundamental cause of early puberty, which is, however, liable to modification from various external influences.

Of these, the most extensive in its operation is the

TEMPERATURE OF CLIMATE.

As heat increases the vital energy in all organized bodies, and renders their growth more rapid, it must necessarily hasten the period of puberty. It is indeed notorious that warm climates increase the development of the reproductive organs, and excite erotic desires in both sexes.

Puberty, its Period, dee.

This cause, moreover, if operating with great force during many ages, must produce organic effects so permanent that they will remain long after removal from its direct or immediate influence. Individuals of the Ethiopic variety, even when transported to Europe or North America, arrive at puberty sooner than the white population.

On the contrary, the inhabitants of low moist countries

•/ 7

receive a flaccid and cold temperament that naturally retards puberty ; and, under all circumstances, they long retain it.

A second cause that modifies the development of puberty is the quantity and quality of aliment.

Very nutritious food, stimulating meats, aromatics, the habitual use of coffee, wine, liqueurs, &c., greatly accelerate this period. Farinaceous substances, roots and vegetable diet, and even the habitual use of milk, cheese, &c., rather retard it.

Hence we observe that the rich and the inhabitants of towns, who eat animal food and live in abundance, reach maturity sooner than the poor and the peasantry, who rarely eat meat, and can obtain but a limited proportion of bread or of less nutritious food. Hence, also, we see that well-fed persons are capable of reproducing at an earlier period than those who have suffered from scarcity, or who have been compelled to use unwholesome or unnutritious aliment.

The use of stimulating and aromatic lotions amongst the rich is also a sure means of accelerating puberty.

A third cause, modifying the development of puberty, is the moral condition. To this must be imputed the difference, independent of aliment, which we observe in this respect between women of towns and those of the country.

In the former, the mode of living differs according to the degree of opulence ; but even the poor struggle to imitate the rich, and many other circumstances multiply excitement — as tiie reading of fashionable novels, voluptuous pictures, licentious theatrical scenes, conversations upon love, the constant proximity of the sexes, exciting dances, and many other causes, some of them of still more injurious character. The result is

Conditions Terminating in Love.

that persons thus excited almost always reach puberty several years earlier than those who pass their childhood in the tranquility of rural life. Puberty may then occur about twelve years of age — a premature development, which diminishes strength of body and vigour of mind, deteriorates all moral qualities, and is extensively fatal to life and its permanent enjoyment.

In the country, on the contrary, the children of the peasantry are brought up cooly, are much in the open air, and of necessity actively employed. Toil directs the blood and the vital powers chiefly to the organs of motion, and augments perspiration. The locomotive system consequently increases at the expense of the vital one ; and the development of the bones and of muscular power predominates over every other. Amongst country people, moreover, the manners are generally simple, the sexes are less in contact, and their presence has less influence. Hence, in the country, many girls do not reach puberty before eighteen.

It has been observed that, at all times, the retardation of puberty retards also the development of the intellectual powers, but preserves energy and freshness to the sentiments, and develops vigorous bodies ; and that if, in woman, this state be prolonged after the ordinary period, she appears to approximate to man both in some of her tastes and in some of her external characteristics.

In taking a general view of the period of puberty thus modified, it appears that, in Europe, women reach it later in the north than in the south. In some elevated northern regions it does not occur till after twenty years of age. In our own country it occurs from fourteen to sixteen in girls, and from sixteen to eighteen in boys. In most parts of France puberty in women commences usually at fourteen years of age ; and, in the southern departments and the great towns, at thirteen. In Italy it takes place at twelve. This is also the case very generally with the Spanish women ; and, at Cadiz, they often marry at that age. In Greece it is not unusual for puberty to

Changes in the Locomotive System.

occur at ten years of age. In Persia, according to Chardin, it occurs at nine or ten. Nearly the same is the case in Arabia, Barbary, Egypt, Abyssinia, Senegal, and various parts of Africa. Thus, puberty in women commences generally, in tropical climates, from nine to ten years of age.

This early development of the reproductive organs and functions is by no means advantageous. In the nations that reach maturity early the union of the sexes before the completion of growth diminishes the stature of young persons ; beauty fades and perishes at a tender age ; and they become aged early : citius pnbescunt , citius senescunt. Their old age is a long one. On the contrary, the northern nations, who more slowlv arrive at maturitv, obtain sufficient time for strengthening of the body ; and they retain their strength, youthful

aspect, and reproductive power to an advanced age.

The Changes caused by Puberty .

When puberty takes place in a regular manner, it produces a general change in existence, new relations to society are created ; — in short, the child ceases to be so, and its relation to the species is proclaimed by characteristics which more and more tend to distinguish the sexes.

Section II. Changes In The Locomotive System

It is at this period that we often observe youths to increase suddenly several inches in stature ; and, if the growth be equal throughout the body, it forms handsome individuals.

There often occurs, however, at this period, a weakness of the muscles, with a great development of the bones, and especially of the joints, which gives to young men a clumsy and awkward appearance.

Conditions Terminating in Love.

While, moreover, growth is proceeding in all directions, the weaker parts appear not always to receive sufficient nutritive supplies, and the strong parts acquire an excess of energy : hence we frequently observe something out of proportion at this period.

Upon the whole, however, the muscles, as well as the bones, acquire greater development and vigour, and the arms and legs increase in size and power. Their muscular forms appear, indeed, the more developed, because their cellular tissue sinks down, in consequence of the diminution of its vital activity.

A young man consequently possesses muscles more square, limbs more robust, a firmer gait, a bolder demeanour.

The motive organs connected with the voice are not less a>ffected than those of the general system, The hyoid bone, or bone of the tongue, is frequently completed about eighteen ; and the muscles of the glottis then acquire a peculiar increase of growth, which, in young men, renders the voice lower by an octave.

In young women, also, the muscles of the glottis receive an increase and a vigour which confer force and brilliance upon speech. “ Hence,” says a French writer, “young girls like to sing and to display the attractions of their voice.”

Section III. Changes In The Vital System

The general influence of puberal development, is, at an early period, manifested in the organs of digestion, by the want of much food, and by deranged appetite. There naturally follows a superabundance of those humours that nature had ureviously applied more exclusively to growth. The power of the arteries augments, and the circulation assumes an unwonted

Changes in the Vital System.

activity. All the vital functions dependent on this are executed with vehemence. The chest increases, and respiration becomes free. The blood also, being acted upon by a stronger impulse, produced probably by a more powerful excitement from the nerves, their organ the heart, warms, colours, and communicates fulness and freshness to the system.

Such changes in the state and circulation of that liquid from which all others are formed, necessarily bestows, on each of these, qualities, and communicates to them impulsions, of a corresponding description. Those vessels which enter into the secretory organs redouble their action ; the glands of the neck, breasts, arm-pits and groins, swell and sometimes become painful. This tendency necessarily and especially extends towards the glandular or more essential parts of the reproductive organs.

There is this, then, in common to both sexes at the time of puberty, that the blood is specially directed towards the parts subservient to reproduction ; and, as this is accompanied by increased sensibility, these organs awake from their torpor and rapidly expand. They are then no longer subordinate, but become a powerful source of vital activity, and have a general influence over the whole of the economy.

In the male the flow of blood towards the reproductive organs, accompanied by sensibility, causes secretion. A sensation of heaviness, however, and a general numbness, affect the loins and the vicinity of these parts, and a confused tumult pervades the body. Meanwhile, the external reproductive organs are further developed. — In some persons, it should be observed, the testes remain, during infancy, concealed in the cavity of the pelvis ; but, at the period of puberty, they descend.