Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 82.djvu/272

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
268
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

than one per cent, of the total Jewish admissions. Notwithstanding the fact that the Jews are thus almost entirely uninfluenced by the greatest of the acquired or accidental causes of insanity, their total number of insane does not fall to the level of the average for the general population. Thus out of 1,762 admissions to the Manhattan State Hospital for 1910-11, there were 455 Jews; that is to say, they made 25.9 per cent, of the total admissions. This is nine tenths of one per cent, more than their usually estimated relation to the general population of the community from which they were recruited.

Reliable data from foreign countries serves to show that, notwithstanding his freedom from alcohol, the Jew still contributes more than his share to the general insane population. Thus in Germany for the period 1890-1902 there were to the 100,000 of population, an annual average number of 67 insane and feeble-minded Jews as against 49 of the non-Jewish population. The congenital idiocies and congenital imbecilities showed an especial disproportion against the Jews, they having 4.51 as compared to 2.75 among the non-Jews.[1] That the proportion of the constitutionally inferior is especially large is shown by a reference to the subjoined table, which is taken from De Fursac's and Rosanoffs latest work on psychiatry. It will be noted that notwithstanding the fact that they have practically none of the psychoses which are due to alcohol, the Jews come second in point of number of admissions.

In this connection the percentage of the Irish admitted for alcoholic

Table of Mental Defectives among Immigrants (Idiots, Imbeciles, Feeble-minded). Annual Report Commissioner General of Immigration, 1911. Rejected for the Year 1911
Total Mental Defectives Per 100,000
Finnish 9,779 0 0
Russian 18,721 0 0
Spanish 8,068 0 0
Magyar 19,966 1 5
Greek 37,021 2 6
Dutch and Flemish 13,862 1 8
Scandinavian 45,859 4 9
Bohemian (Czech) 9,223 1 11
Ruthenian 17,724 2 11
Pole 71,446 9 12
Slovak 21,415 3 15
Italian (North) 30,312 5 16
Croatian, Slovenian 982 2 22
Italian (South) 159,638 36 23
English 57,258 13 23
German 66,471 15 23
Scotch 25,625 6 23
Irish 40,246 11 27
Hebrew 91,223 26 28
French 18,132 6 32
  1. Maurice Fishberg, "The Jews: A Study of Race and Environment."