[Footnote 15: _Effect of Consanguinity upon the Organs of Special Sense_, p. 4.] In several European countries such marriages have been registered, though somewhat spasmodically and inaccurately. According to Mulhall[16] the ratio of the consanguineous among 10,000 marriages in the various countries is as follows: TABLE I. ----------------------------------- Country.| Ratio. | Country.| Ratio. ----------------------------------- Prussia | 67 | Alsace | 107 Italy | 69 | France | 126 England | 75 | Jews | 230 ----------------------------------- [Footnote 16: _Dictionary of Statistics_, p. 383.] According to Uchermann the ratio is 690 or 6.9 per cent, including marriages between second cousins and nearer.[17] Dr. Peer says that 4 per cent of the marriages in Saxony are consanguineous.[18] The ratio seems to be increasing in France but diminishing in Alsace and Italy, as indicated in Table II.[19] [Footnote 17: _Les Sourds-muets en Norvège_. Quoted by Feer, p. 9.] [Footnote 18: _Der Einfluss der Blutsverwandschaft der Eltern auf die Kinder_, p. 9.] [Footnote 19: Mulhall, _Dictionary of Statistics_, p. 383.] TABLE II. --------------------------------------------------------- Country.| Date. |Ratio.[A]| Country.| Date. |Ratio.[A] --------------------------------------------------------- France | 1853-60| 97 | France | 1861-71 | 126 Alsace | 1858-65| 143 | Alsace | 1872-75 | 107 Italy | 1868-71| 84 | Italy | 1872-75 | 69 --------------------------------------------------------- [A] Per 10,000. In Italy the ratio varies greatly in different parts of the country. Mulhall gives the following figures for the years 1872-75: TABLE III. ------------------------------------------ Province.| Ratio.[A]| Province.| Ratio.[A] ------------------------------------------ Venice | 24 | Sicily | 117 Naples | 30 | Piedmont | 131 Lombardy | 100 | Liguria | 183 ------------------------------------------ [A] Per 10,000. It will be noted that the lowest ratios are in provinces where the urban population is comparatively large. Wherever statistics have been gathered it is the rule that the percentage of consanguineous marriage is greater in rural than in urban districts. Table IV, also from Mulhall, illustrates this point. TABLE IV. ------------------------------------------------- |_Ratio per 10,000 Marriages_. ------------------------------------------------- Country. | Rural.| Urban. | General. ------------------------------------------------- England | 79 | 71 | 75 France | 130 | 115 | 126 Alsace | 121 | 41 | 107 Norway[A] (Uchermann)| 810 | 260 | 690 ------------------------------------------------- [A] Includes second cousins.