r parts of the world know, by observation if not by
experience, that a "weakness of character leading to drink" and "an
inert and lazy disposition" are by no means the prerogatives of the
inbred.

If one is going to credit consanguineous marriage with these evil
results, what can one say when evil results fail to follow?

What about Smith's Island, off the coast of Maryland, where all the
inhabitants are said to be interrelated, and where a physician who lived
in the community for three years failed to find among the 700 persons a
single case of idiocy, insanity, epilepsy or congenital deafness?

What about the community of Batz, on the coast of France, where Voisin
found five marriages of first cousins and thirty-one of second cousins,
without a single case of mental defect, congenital deafness, albinism,
retinitis pigmentosa or malformation? The population was 3,000, all of
whom were said to be interrelated.

What about Cape Cod, whose natives are known throughout New England for
their ability? "At a recent visit to the Congregational Sunday-School,"
says a student, "I noticed all officers, many teachers, organist,
ex-superintendent, and pastor's wife all Dyers. A lady at Truro united
in herself four quarters Dyer, father, mother and both grandmothers
Dyers."

And finally, what about the experience of livestock breeders? Not only
has strict brother and sister mating--the closest inbreeding
possible--been carried on experimentally for twenty or twenty-five
generations without bad results; but the history of practically every
fine breed shows that inbreeding is largely responsible for its
excellence.

The Ptolemies, who ruled Egypt for several centuries, wanted to keep the
throne in the family, and hence practiced a system of intermating which
has long been the classical evidence that consanguineous marriage is
not necessarily followed by immediate evil effects. The following
fragment of the genealogy of Cleopatra VII (mistress of Julius Caesar and
Marc Antony) is condensed from Weigall's _Life and Times of Cleopatra_
(1914) and

Ptolemy I
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Ptolemy II
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Ptolemy III m. Berenice II, his half-cousin.
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Ptolemy IV m. Arsinoe III, his full sister.
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Ptolemy V.
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Ptolemy VII m. Cleopatra II, his full sister.
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Cleopatra III m. Ptolemy IX (brother of VII), her uncle.