TABLE XIV. ---------------------------------------------------------- | Sex of Children. | |----------------------| Marriage. |Number.| Male.|Female.|Masculinity. ---------------------------------------------------------- 1st cousins and nearer| 709 | 1245 | 1171 | 106.3 2d and 3rd cousins | 124 | 264 | 240 | 110.0 All consanguineous | 833 | 1509 | 1411 | 106.9 Unrelated | 125 | 444 | 380 | 116.9 ---------------------------------------------------------- [Footnote 40: Bemiss, _Report on Influence of Marriages of Consanguinity_, pp. 420-423.] In the "Marriage of Near Kin," Mr. Huth gives a list of cases of consanguineous marriage collected by various persons from all over Europe.[41] He is free to say that they are worse than useless for the purpose for which they were collected, that of determining whether or not such marriages produce degeneracy, but in so far as the sex of the children is concerned they would not be biassed. TABLE XV. ----------------------------------------------------- |Sex of Children.| |----------------| Marriage. | Male.| Female. | Masculinity. ----------------------------------------------------- 1st cousins and nearer| 165 | 164 | 100 More distant cousins | 95 | 73 | 131 ----------------------------------------------------- [Footnote 41: Huth, _Marriage of Near Kin. Appendix._] The unusual ratios are of course due principally to a "run of luck," and this table only shows that if consanguinity is a determining factor in sex, its influence is negligible when a small number of cases is considered. It is interesting accordingly to note that of 100 children of incestuous unions and from uncle-niece and aunt-nephew marriages from Bemiss, Huth and other sources, the sex distribution was 48 males and 52 females, giving a negative masculinity of 92. While in general the evidence presented in this chapter is somewhat conflicting, that which bears most directly upon the problem does not substantiate the hypothesis of Westermarck. The evidence in favor of the theory is all indirect and is open to other interpretations. It is hardly safe to go to the other extreme and to assert that consanguinity diminishes masculinity. The safest, and withal the most reasonable conclusion is that consanguinity in the parents has no appreciable effect upon the sex of the child. CHAPTER IV CONSANGUINITY AND REPRODUCTION