TRANSMISSION OF LIFE.
As has been already stated in the chapter on Biology, reproduction of the species depends upon the union of a sperm-cell with a germ-cell, the male furnishing the former and the female the latter. It is a well-known fact that the marriage of persons having dissimilar temperaments is more likely to be fertile than the union of persons of the same temperaments; consanguineous marriages, or the union of persons nearly related by blood, diminish fertility and the vigor of the offspring. Upon this subject Francis Galton has given some very interesting historical illustrations in his well-known work, entitled "Hereditary Genius." The half-brother of Alexander the Great, Ptolemy I, King of Egypt, had twelve descendants, who successively became kings of that country, and who were also called Ptolemy. They were matched in and in, but in nearly every case these near marriages were unprolific and the inheritance generally passed through other wives. Ptolemy II married his niece, and afterwards his sister; Ptolemy IV married his sister. Ptolemy VI and VII were brothers, and they both consecutively married the same sister; Ptolemy VII also subsequently married his niece; Ptolemy VIII married two of his sisters in succession. Ptolemy XII and XIII were brothers, and both consecutively married their sister, Cleopatra. Mr. Galton and Sir Jas. Y. Simpson have shown that many peerages have become extinct through the evil results of inter-marriage. Heiresses are usually only children, the feeble product of a run-out stock, and statistics have shown that one-fifth of them bear no children, and fully one-third never bear more than one child. Sir J.Y. Simpson ascertained that out of 495 marriages in the British Peerage, 81 were unfruitful, or nearly one in every six; while out of 675 marriages among an agricultural and seafaring population, only 65 were sterile or barren, or a little less than one in ten.
While the marriages of persons closely related, or of similar temperaments are frequently unfruitful, we would not have the reader understand that sterility, or barrenness, is usually the result of such unions. It is most frequently due to some deformity or diseased condition of the generative organs of the female. In the latter part of this work may be found a minute description of the conditions which cause barrenness, together with the methods of treatment, which have proved most effectual in the extensive practice at the Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute.
The temperaments may be compared to a magnet, the like poles of which repel, and the unlike poles of which attract each other. Thus similarity of temperament results in barrenness while dissimilarity makes the vital magnetism all the more powerful. Marriageable persons moved by some unknown influence, have been drawn instinctively toward each other, have taken upon themselves the vows and obligations of wedlock, and have been fruitful and happy in this relation. Alliances founded upon position, money, or purely arbitrary considerations, mere contracts of convenience, are very apt to prove unhappy and unproductive.
Men may unconsciously obey strong instinctive impulses without being conscious of their existence, and by doing so, avoid those ills, which otherwise might destroy their connubial happiness. The philosophy of marriage receives no consideration, because the mind is pre-occupied with newly awakened thoughts and feelings. Lovers are charmed by certain harmonies, feel interior persuasions, respond to a new magnetic influence and are lost in an excess of rapture.
If the parties to a marriage are evenly balanced in organic elements, although both of them are vigorous, yet it is physiologically more suitable for them to form a nuptial alliance with an unlike combination. The cause of the wretchedness attending many marriages may be traced to a too great similarity of organization, ideas, taste, education, pursuits, and association, which similarity almost invariably terminates in domestic unhappiness. The husband and wife should be as different as the positive and negative poles of a magnet. When life is begotten under these circumstances we may expect a development bright with intelligence.