Doctors of 1911 (according to that edition of 1000 Medical Hints - The care of the body in health and disease by the Medical Adviser of the Sunday Chronicle) 'are often asked questions relating to the suitability of certain persons for the purposes of matrimony... one does not have to be a member of the Eugenics Society, or an enthusiastic believer in Eugenics... a fashionable pastime... to feel how important it is that married couples should not start life handicapped'.
And the doctors' response? The Medical Adviser (who goes entirely unnamed) is clear that there is no general rule. He is comfortable with the marriage of near relations, such as cousins, so long as there is no 'cancer, nervous trouble or insanity' in the family. He is opposed to marriages between 'May and December' - where a husband is more than ten or twelve years older than his wife; of course, 'the wife should never be older than the husband by more than a year or two at the most.'
'Marriages between different races are generally more or less sterile' he concludes, firmly and with reference to some observations of cross-racial marriages. And then: 'I heartily approve of men marrying when they are in their early twenties - provided, of course, their pecuniary condition is such as to permit it.'
Hard as I'm trying to imagine myself in 1911, taking this advice is a step too far. I wonder if people still ask their doctors about who they should marry. It's not in NHS Direct: I wonder what they're told.
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