Note 238 — OF MARRIAGE.

Sir John Sebright informs us, that if a flock of sheep, in which there is any defect, are permitted to breed in and in, the defect will gradually increase among them; and Colonel Humphries, by selecting for breeding a marked variety, has succeeded in procuring a flock, all of them with deformed bones: upon these curious facts Dr. Adams makes the following remarks; “If the same causes operate in man, may we not impute to them many endemic peculiarities found in certain sequestered districts, which have hitherto been imputed to the water, and other localities? and may we not trace a provision against such a deterioration of the race, in that revealed law, by which any sexual intercourse between near relations is forbidden, on pain of death?”