strong; he has little money, generally no family; he is poorly fed and
clothed and possesses few if any attractions. He may be a sailor away
from women and their society for months, or in some other remote
occupation making his means of gratifying this hunger just as
impossible. There is no opportunity for him except the one he adopts. It
is a question of gratifying this deep and primal instinct as against
the weakness of his mentality and the few barriers that a meagre
education and picked-up habits can furnish; and when the instinct
overbalances he is lost.

Incest, which is peculiarly the crime of the weak, the wretched and the
poor, has a somewhat different origin. Westermarck in his "_History of
Human Marriage_" shows that in the early tribe there was no inhibition
against the marriage of blood relations; that the restriction then was
against the members of the tribe that used one tent; these might or
might not be blood relations. The traditions and folk-ways against the
marriage of close relations grew from the familiarity that came from the
living together of brother and sister, for instance, in one home. This
feeling gradually worked itself into custom and habit and from that into
folk-ways and laws. Sometimes we read accounts of the marriage of a man
and woman who found, after years had gone by, that they were brother and
sister who had been separated in infancy and grew up without knowledge
of their relation to each other. Whether Nature forbids the marriage of
relatives by preventing offspring or by producing imperfect offspring is
a doubtful question. Certain communities in Europe have lived together
so long that all are related and still they seem to thrive. Considering
the general custom and feeling on the subject, however, the man and
woman who know that they are closely related and who marry are different
and weaker than the others; and this may show in their offspring.
Although the subnormal may have no such feeling, they are judged by the