The intermarriage of relations / by Nathan Allen.

  • Allen, Nathan, 1813-1889.
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The intermarriage of relations / by Nathan Allen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    tend toward establishing tlie truth of this great law of population. This is only one mode of proof; there are a multitude of other modes which cannot here be dis- cussed. In advocating this doctrine of population, it is admitted that other powerful factors or agents, such as climate, food, government, and other external influences, enter largely into its operations. They serve in two ways to change the action of this law: 1st, by gradu- ally producing changes in the body itself; and 2dly, by modifying the developments of this law. But they do not constitute the law itself. This must have its seat, its fountain-head, its original source, in the perfec- tion of human organization. When God created man a free agent, and-commanded him “to be fruitful and multiply,” He also established a law of increase, which man, in order to obey, must understand, must know what are its conditions, requirements, penalties, etc., etc. The question may be asked, Why has not this law, so important, been discovered before ? In reply it may be briefly said, 1st, that nearly all writers on this sub- ject have been looking to other sources than the body itself, for a foundation of this law; and 2clly, the atten- tion of the medical profession—as far as turned in this direction—has been devoted almost exclusively to the reproductive organs—dwelling not so much upon their structure or general functions as upon certain normal or morbid conditions ; whereas both the anatomy and physiology of these organs are very much dependent upon, as well as affected by, the development, health, and other conditions of all parts of the body. It seems to have been the design of Providence, that the great truths of Nature should be slowly