APPENDIX.

OPINIONS OF EMINENT SCOTTISH DIVINES.

The following Ministers of the Gospel in Edinburgh and Glasgow, of all Denominations, have expressed their views in regard to Marriage with a Deceased Brother's Wife as contrary to the Laws of God; but as the opinions would occupy too much space, and are in substance as I have already stated, I simply give the names.

THE MARRIAGE OF COUSINS.

IN the foregoing pages the subject of the Marriage of Cousins has not been discussed, although there are not a few who hold that all such marriages are undoubtedly unwise. In whatever way it originally came about, the Marriage of Cousins in Great Britain and Ireland is now sanctioned by long usage and custom. The fact, however, that such marriages are not uncommon, is no argument in their favour, as ample experience goes to show that they are, with rare exceptions, productive of the most serious consequences to families and to the nation at large. Nor is it enough to say in their favour that they are nowhere expressly prohibited in the Scriptures, as it is very well known that many other relationships which would be, beyond all doubt, regarded as wrong, and treated criminally as such, were they entered into, are nowhere in so many words prohibited by the Levitical Code. Nature, common sense, and experience ought to demonstrate the impropriety, if not the criminality, of marriages between those so closely related by affinity and consanguinity as cousins.

The weight of medical testimony in Great Britain and other nations is decidedly against the Marriage of Cousins, though somehow or other, chiefly from cupidity, the evil continues to be a growing and a spreading one.

Recently, at a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences, there was read a paper by a celebrated physician, giving an account of his own personal observations in a single family related to each other by cousinship in marriage. Its conclusions amounted to these, that the Marriage of Cousins has a depressing influence over the vital powers; that it

produces sterility, deafness, privation of speech, and weakness of the eyes, and that it seriously impairs the intellectual faculties. Another French medical authority gives it, as the result of his professional experience, that imperfections both of mind and body result from the Marriage of Cousins. In a secluded town, he says, where the inhabitants have little communication with the people of other towns, it is quite a peculiarity for the children to be born with six fingers. Out of 121 Marriages of Cousins, 17 were thus affected.

In America, where the subject of Marriage of Cousins has been largely discussed and investigated, it has been found that 10 per cent. of all the deaf and dumb, 5 per cent. of the blind, and 15 per cent. of the idiots are the result of the Marriage of First Cousins.

The Governors of Maryland and Kentucky advised the legislatures of their respective States to prohibit the Marriage of Cousins under severe penalties. They affirmed it to be a flagrant violation of the laws of nature for cousins to marry, and pointed to the fact that from 17 to 20 per cent. of the fruits of such marriages were to be found as inmates of charitable institutions-787 Marriages of Cousins having produced no fewer than 256 deaf, dumb, blind, or idiotic children.

It is not necessary to state that all Marriages among Cousins are not alike injurious or disastrous. Some constitutions are stronger and better than others; the results, therefore, are not so distressing. It is the duty of all, however, to weigh well the facts associated with the Marriages of Cousins; and if they would have a healthy and vigorous offspring, to choose their partners from families where there is no probability of such results as have been pointed out.

THE REGISTRATION OF BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, AND DEATHS.

THE Legislature of Great Britain, though it was somewhat tardy in doing it, has wisely provided that every Birth, Death, and Marriage occurring within the realm shall be duly registered.. The process is exceedingly simple; and so far has been found wonderfully efficacious. It is at once a protection against present fraud and imposition, and a ready means of securing accurate information as to family relationships which may by possibility be disputed in the distant future. The Act regulating registrations is known as the 17th and 18th Victoria, chap. 80, and the penalties attached to its violation are severe. The following is the penalty for giving false information:

"Every person who shall knowingly and wilfully make, or cause to be made, for the purpose of being inserted in any Register of Birth, Marriage, or Death, any false or fictitious entry, or any false statement regarding the name of any person mentioned in the register, or touching all or any of the particulars of this Act required to be Registered, shall be punishable by transportation for a period not exceeding seven years, or by imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years."

Strange though it may appear, the Act has been and is being in a great variety of ways evaded and set at nought— one case of evasion in Edinburgh being notoriously well known to the citizens. It is that of a man in a respectable position in life who lives with his deceased brother's widow, and who has had his children by her registered as if they were legitimate,—the registrar being kept in ignorance of the fact of the nature of the relationship. Had the registrar