From R. A. Job 23 December 1879
14 Water St. | L’pool
23 Dec 1879.
Professor Darwin | Beckenham.
Sir,
I must apologise for thus troubling you, but the urgency & importance to me of the undermentioned subject must must be my excuse.
I am most anxious to find out from the highest living authorities & investigators of the delicate subject of consanguinity, what can be said for or against it (physiologically considered) & I shall esteem it a lasting favor if you would shortly & without much trouble to yourself let me have your valuable & authoritative views and conclusions on the subject or if you could put me in the way of getting any reliable information abt. it.
You will readily appreciate my reason for troubling you when I say that I am the son of cousins & wishful to marry a first cousin if I can get sufficient reliable evidence to show that such a course would not be unwise1
Enclosing my address & thanking you in anticipation for anything you may favor me with, | believe me, Sir, | Your’s obedly., Robt. A. Job
I need hardly ask you to keep what I have written above in confidence.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Darwin, George Howard. 1873b. On beneficial restrictions to liberty of marriage. Contemporary Review 22: 412–26.
Darwin, George Howard. 1875a. Marriages between first cousins in England and their effects. [Read 16 March 1875.] Journal of the Statistical Society of London 38: 153–84.
Summary
RAJ is the son of cousins and wishes to marry his cousin. Is anxious for information on consanguineous marriages and on the advisability of his proposed marriage.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-12369
- From
- Robert Arthur Job
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Liverpool
- Source of text
- DAR 168: 64
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12369,” accessed on 18 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12369.xml