Mivart had previously been a correspondent of Darwin's, but had written hostile reviews of some of Darwin's work , as a result of which Darwin had brought their correspondence to an end. The dispute was not resolved until early , and, even then, not to Darwin's complete satisfaction.
The story sheds light on Darwin's anxiety about the respectability of his views and the views of those associated with him, his reluctance to enter a public debate, the fierce loyalty of his friends, and contemporary codes of behaviour in scientific society.
It has been discussed in Gruber , pp. In August , George had published an article under the title 'On beneficial restrictions to liberty of marriage' in the Contemporary Review G. Darwin b. In this article, George discussed how modern scientific doctrines might be expected in the future to affect personal liberty in the matter of marriage. A better understanding of the inheritance of mental and physical qualities would make people realise that their reproductive choices would have an effect on future society.
Francis Galton had written about the possibility of creating an elite who would intermarry as a way of improving the race; George wanted to discuss the consequences of a scheme he thought more likely to be adopted, the prevention of marriage among inferior members of the race. Mental disease seemed to be increasing, and in his view was inheritable, and the most obvious way to deal with it was to introduce restrictions on marriage.
As a first step, he argued, a divorce should not be refused on the grounds of the insanity of either party. The next step would be that insanity should itself be grounds for divorce: 'as The next steps would be to make proof of never having been insane a prerequisite of marriage, then proof that parents and remoter ancestors were 'likewise untainted'.
