enitally deaf, 2 persons to every
10,000. Assuming then, as before[93] that 1,000,000 persons in
continental United States are the offspring of consanguineous
marriages within the limits of the term "cousins" as used in the
Census report, 41 out of every 10,000 persons of consanguineous
parentage would be deaf, and 17 congenitally so. Thus less than one
half of one per cent of the offspring of consanguineous marriages in
the United States are deaf, and only one sixth of one per cent are
deaf-mutes in the commonly accepted sense of the term.

[Footnote 93: _Supra_, p. 64.]

It is interesting here to quote an opinion given by Dr. Bell in 1891,
as to the probable results of the consanguineous marriage of deaf
persons.[94]

[Footnote 94: _Marriage--An Address to the Deaf_, second edition,
Appendix.]

1. A deaf person, not born deaf, who has no deaf relatives,
will probably not increase his liability to have deaf offspring
by marrying a blood relative.

2. A deaf person, born deaf, who has no deaf relatives, will
probably increase his liability to have deaf offspring by
marrying a blood relative.

3. A deaf person, whether born deaf or not, who has deaf
relatives, will probably increase his liability to have deaf
offspring by marrying a blood relative, especially if that
relative should happen to be on the deaf side of the family.
For example: If his father has deaf relatives and his mother
has none, he will be more likely to have deaf offspring if he
marries a relative of his father than if he marries a relative
of his mother.

The laws of heredity seem to indicate that a consanguineous
marriage increases or intensifies in the offspring whatever
peculiarities exist in the family. If a family is
characterized by the large proportion of persons who enjoy
good health and live to old age with unimpaired faculties,
then a consanguineous marriage in such a family would probably
be beneficial, by increasing and intensifying these desirable
characteristics in the offspring. On the other hand, if a
large proportion of the members of a family betray weakness of
constitution--for example: if many of the children die in
infancy, and a large proportion of the others suffer from ill
health, only a few living to old age with unimpaired
faculties--then a consanguineous marriage in such a family
would probably be hurtf