d a woman who had married and given
birth to ten normal children. In the fourth generation this pedigree,
which was far from complete, went out of the islands; so far as the data
showed there was not a single case of consanguineous marriage. There was
one case where a name was repeated, but the author had failed to mark
this as a case of intermarriage, if it really was such. It is difficult
to share the conviction of Dr. Penrose, that the two pedigrees
investigated, offer an example of the nefarious workings of
intermarriage.

Finally a fraternity was traced to which the author had called
particular attention because three of its eleven members were born
blind. The defect was described as "optic atrophy associated with a
pigmentary retinitis and choryditis" and "this condition," Dr. Penrose
averred, "is one stated by the authorities to be due to the effects of
consanguineous marriage."

Fortunately, the pedigree was fairly full and several lines of it could
be carried through the sixth generation. There was, indeed, a
considerable amount of consanguineous marriage involved. When the amount
of inbreeding represented by these blind boys was measured, it proved to
be almost identical with the amount represented by the present Kaiser of
Germany.[93]

We are unable to see in such a history as that of Hopetown, Bahama
Islands, any evidence that consanguineous marriage necessarily results
in degeneracy. Dr. Penrose himself points to a potent factor when he
says of his chart in another connection: "It will be noticed that only a
few of the descendants of Widow Malone [the first settler at Hopetown]
are indicated as having married. By this it is not meant that the others
did not marry; many of them did, but they moved away and settled
elsewhere, and in no way affected the future history of the settlement
of Hopetown."

By moving away, it appears to us, they did very decidedly affect the
future history of Hopetown. Who are the emigrants? Might they not have
been the more enterprising and intelligent, the physically and mentally
superior of the population, who rebelled at the limited opportunities of
their little village, and went to seek a fortune in some broader field?
Did not the best go in general; the misfits, the defectives, stay behind
to propagate? Emigration in such a case would have the same effect as
war; it would drain off the best stock and leave the weaklings to stay
home and propagate their kind. Under such con