This analysis of some eugenic strategies for "improving the race" through the control of marriages explores Victorian England's concern with matrimony as expressed in the works of Thomas Malthus, who was interested in population growth, and of Francis Galton, who proposed that eugenics be used as a science to "improve" the innate qualities of the race. The article also discusses how this matrimonial means of control was expressed within the Brazilian eugenics movement and how it influenced the drafting of the Brazilian Civil Code.
eugenics; marriage; Malthus; Galton; Renato Kehl; Brazilian Civil Code; matrimonial control measures