Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 70.djvu/37

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33

THE JEWS: RACE AND ENVIRONMENT

THE JEWS: A STUDY OF RACE AND ENVIRONMENT. IV.

By Dr. MAURICE FISHBERG

NEW YORK

Mortality

THE bulk of the Jewish population in the orient and eastern Europe lives mostly in the oldest and most congested parts of cities amid squalid and unsanitary surroundings, where the mortality rates are, by general experience, known to be excessive. Physically, the eastern European Jews appear to be weak, anemic and decrepit when compared with the christian population, and in addition they are mainly engaged in indoor occupations. These peculiarities would lead one to expect a priori that the mortality rates among them would be much higher than among other people, who live mostly under better hygienic and sanitary conditions, have a large proportion of agriculturists who live in the open country, and are engaged in outdoor occupations, and to all outward appearances are more robust and healthy. It is a remarkable fact, however, that the contrary is true. The figures in the appended table, giving the results of most recent official censuses

 

Country.	Year.	Annual Mortality per 1000.		Mortality of Christians 100, Jews—
		Jews.	Christians.
Algeria	1901	20.58	23.14	88.93
Roumania	1902	20.02	29.06	68.54
Cracow (Galicia)	1895-1900	19.70	35.90	64.00
Warsaw (Poland)	1901	18.22	24.59	74.09
European Russia	1897	17.82	36.49	48.81
Hungary	1903	17.29	27.24	63.47
Austria	1901	17.26	25.18	65.93
Hesse	1901-1904	14.80	19.10	77.48
Prussia	1904	14.22	20.44	69.57
Berlin	1904	13.32	17.12	77.80
Prague	1901	13.26	20.02	66.23
Budapest	1903	13.20	19.00	69.47
Amsterdam	1900	12.27	17.44	70.36
Bavaria	1902	12.11	23.08	52.47

 

in various countries, show that the rates are much lower among the Jews than among other Europeans. Only in Algeria and Roumania do the rates exceed twenty per 1,000 population, but in all the other mentioned countries the annual rates are less than twenty: In Poland (Cracow and Warsaw) it is between 18 and 19; in European Russia, Hungary and Austria, 17; in Prussia, 14; in the capitals of Prussia, Bohemia and Hungary, only 13; and in Amsterdam and Bavaria the low rates are almost unprecedented, only 12 per 1,000. A yet lower