PERFECT FAMILIES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 149, 19 March 1919, Page 2

PERFECT FAMILIES

STAT 1 'MARRIAGE ADVICE PRO,: | POSAL. " I "Tho Stair should institute offices at wliien people about.to marry could obtain j advice .us' to tlic prospects of thonuirrj rings turning out happily,'' said Sir Robert Armstrong-Jones, the specialist, in i nnrvilus and nientni diseases, lo a "Daily M-ai!" reiirosentative . .recently. ".Whore people have the sumo dispositions, and: idiosyncrasies, deterioration is apt to.be marked in tho offspring. because there is so kiwi!l'it range, of" character for tho children to drafr. I'foni.' At tho same time, where both parents are brilliant in somo.wii'ticular phase, that phase is likely to be intensified in the-children, .and. the result may be the' production'.'of genius—which is closely .allied to mental, instability •■;■•." >. ■ "Every phase of n person's character.is a scpnrafo entity exercising a separate iiiuwmoe, and as a;rule the best types of. children ure obtained from the mingling of a lni'Kei'" number' of these separate entities—they inny.be affection, honesty, conversational powers, hereditary Jove of music, nnd others—with a smaller, number of ft different character. There ,is thra n.'iiide. range,.and the child is likely lo draw upon the.lot. "These separate entities of character are inherited sometimes after generations, and as a rule it is tho inheritance of iiia'iy such influences from several generathns that produces a genius,, such' as Shakespeare,- Milton, or Darwin. Too gnat dissimilarity between- people, who finftr into mnrringo produces deteriorated! children, becauso there arises « revulsion. ihsbiuV of a blending. • I khoiv'a Spaniard, impulsive, hot-blooded, and gay, w'.io married an Englishwoman,possessed of English characteristic—she was phlegma'.ii; and 'reserved. In neither family w-is'.tlicre: any trace of .insanity,- biit nil their, children wero. insane. It.is. of great importance to'j'nqii'iro into several generations of family history to ascertain if there are any characteristics or defici.Micies' likely to come out in the- childi'3ll., . That these 'phased do rceur after long periods']!! proved to., the hilt. ;

"T. knew a woman w|i6, although descended from a negro several generations previously, had'conic of white parents, jri:a'- ilprirents,... and, •grent-srandiKirents, mid was to all intents and purposes . a w.Vit.e. ..She'married a white man, and y:k Ihev had a' black baby. This was known b be n case where a separate, entity—in this .wtije'.colo.nr— nsseried iftelf after several generations." ,-..