Genre:

Essay, Travelogue

Subjects:

Breeding, Heredity, Degeneration, Christianity

    Notes that in the French-speaking region of Western Canada, the Catholic Church 'forbids the union of blood-relations, but it sells for a moderate price permits for even first cousins to marry, so that consanguineous marriages are very common in these old parishes, where families have kept increasing and settling near the old homestead till they form clans sometimes numbering several hundred of one name' (403). In addition, moreover, the 'priest permits such marriages sometimes on consideration of certain circumstances', such as the 'lack of beauty reducing the chances of a woman to get another offer' (403–04). However, 'these circumstances have been abused to such a serious detriment of the population that Rome has seen fit to recommend a more rigorous enforcement of the law' (404).