Jain Shwetambar Conference Herald 1910 Book 06

Author(s): Mohanlal Dalichand Desai
Publisher: Jain Shwetambar Conference

Page 184

- જૈન કેન્ફરન્સ હેરલ્ડ.
(onger.
iolence. It was the fear inspired by these atrocities which prolably rst gave an impetus to the banefnl custom of child marriage, offer. g as it did, in conjunction with the Purdah, some sort of protecon, however inadequate, against the unbridled license of the conquerors. It all events, its rápil incorporation as one of the binding national instituie ons of the country dates sometime after the Mahomedan occupation.
Whatever might have been the justification then, there can be n) xcuse now, for perpetuating an institution, which involves a grave uffence gainst Nature, and which has done and is doing an incalculable amount injury to the whole nation. Iis pernicious effect is not confined tu vl.e pration but has been handed down from generation to generation. It
not be guinsaid that early marriage has been one of the principal auses of the physical degeneracy and, to some extent, the intellectual ecline of the race; fur mind and boily act and react on each viher in a Wy hardly appreciated by us. It is an elementary truth of physiology
blants and animals must be fully developed before they can reproduce whest and most vigorous species. The fruits of e:rly exual consummit
e generally weaklings in mind and bully, and sta:istics fully beir wut u marct. The latest verdict of the science of Eugenics is the inferiority of he first-born both mentally and physically. The point has been recently aised by Sir Francis Galton in connexion with the controversy ragi!:g ound the question of the Reform of the House of Lords. In a letter to de Times, Sir Francis observes, that in the ciuse of the House of Lords he claims of heredity would be best satisfied if all the sons of peers were qually eligible to the peerage and a selection made among them, late Searches having shown that the eldest-born are, as a rule, inferior in atural gifts to the younger-born in a small but significant degree. “These iews are fully endorsed and further supplementeel by Dr. David Herol, f the Galton Laboratory for National Eugenics at University College, ho says-" The first-born in a fanily is more likely to be insane tuberilous or criminal than the others " Another enjinent specialist Dr. arl Pearson says;. "The mental and physical condition of the first d second-born niembers of a family is differentiated from that of er members. They are of a more nervous and less stable constitution, e find that the neurotic, the insane, the tuberculous and the albinotie e more freqnent among the elder-born." These conclusions arrive?