EUGENIC WAR MARRIAGES

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2777, 23 May 1916, Page 4

EUGENIC WAR MARRIAGES

WOUNDED MEN AS BIUDEGKOOMS. Dr. Murray Leslie lectured recently at the London Institute of Hygiene on "The Disabled Soldier: His Future and his Economic Value." The present marriage rato, Jib said, wa6 tho highest ever known. Those marriages had, for tho most part, been confined to young, strong, and active soldiers, although there were numerous instances where our girls had been only too delighted to marry the men of their choice after they liavo lieen disfigured or disabled. Women, as a 6ex, had an aversion from deformities of nil sorts, but that would probably not hold good to anything like tho same extent if tho young couplo had met cach other before disfigurement took place. From that point of view war engagements, as well as war marriages, were greatly to be recommended. Admiration for our disabled' war heroes should be encouraged. It was quite easy for a woman to idealise a scoundrel; surely it ought to be still easier for her to idealise a hero. It had been proposed to found n. League for the Marrying of Wounded Heroes. Tt was doubtful if such a. scheme could lie made a practical one, but there was much to be said for the principle. Tho economic question was the difllculty, yet how many women there were with comfortable incomes who spent large sums on pampered lapdogs. Such incomes could be better utilised in other directions. There was a curious belief. widely entertained among women, that deformities were inherited. This was absolutely untrue. No acquired deformities, dismemberments, or mutilations were over transmitted to offspring.