Note 1885 — Chapter XIV · PROHIBITION OF MARRIAGE BETWEEN KINDRED

Mr. Huth, in the first edition of his work, ‘The Marriage of Near Kin,’ suggests (p. 157) that marriage between parents and children is considered incestuous because marriage between old men and young women in general is considered so. In the second edition, Mr. Huth seems to have given up this most unfortunate hypothesis, as he says (p. 18) that ‘the prohibition of marriage with those who were regarded as near of kin was derived from the same causes which made exogamy imperative,’ that is, the causes suggested by Mr. Spencer.