of other families, etc. Expedients of this nature abound in the annals of old monarchies.
In a communication to the Academy of Medicine, in Paris, Dr. Eilliet, of Geneva, states in substance as fol- lows: that in Geneva a considerable number of intermar- riages have occurred among blood relations, and that his attention has been long attracted by the fatal results to the health and even to the lives of the children. These con- sequences are:
1. The absence of conception.
2. Delayed conception.
3. Imperfect conception. (Miscarriage.)
4. Incomplete products. (Monstrosities.)
5. Products whose physical and moral constitution is imperfect.
6. Products more especially exposed to diseases of the nervous system, and in the order of frequency: epilepsy, imbecility or idiocy, deaf-mutes, paralysis, and various diseases of the brain.
7. Lymphatic products — predisposed to diseases which relate to scrofulous and tubercular tendencies.
8. Products which die in infancy in greater proportion than children born in other conditions.
9. Products which, if they survive inftncy, are less apt than others to resist disease and death.
To these rules there are certainly exceptions which are attributable either to the health of the parents, or to their organic conditions at the time of procreation. Thus: (1) It is seldom that all the children escape the evil influence. (2) In the same family some are attacked, while others are spared. (3) Those of the same family who are attacked are rarely ever seized in the same manner; for example, one is an epileptic, another is a deaf-mute, etc.
