270 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



ease of childhood, death for one cause or another intervening in, the 

 majority of instances long before the age of the natural expectation of 

 life is reached. When we consider this universally admitted fact, it 

 becomes apparent that at least one of the aforesaid explanations must 

 be wrong. For, if children of Jewish parents survive in such dispro- 

 portionately large numbers as to account for the seeming excess of 

 feeble-rnindedness, it naturally follows that this survival must offset the 

 diminished birth-rate and serve to maintain the normal relation between 

 child and adult population. 



If the difference in the relation of adult to child population really 

 exists in a sufficient degree to be a factor at all in the explanation of 

 the degree of prevalence of insanity and feeble-mindedness, the logical 

 argument would be as follows : 



1. The proportion of Jewish adults to the general population is 

 greater than among others, consequently the proportion of the child 

 population is less. 



2. Feeble-mindedness is a disease of childhood. 



3. Conclusion: Being fewer Jewish children there are fewer feeble- 

 minded among Jews than among others. 



If we reverse the argument and assume the premise that more 

 Jewish children survive than among others we should have the follow- 

 ing syllogism : 



1. The proportion of Jewish children to the general population is 

 greater than among others, consequently the proportion of the adult 

 population is less. 



2. Insanity is a disease of adults. 



3. Conclusion : Being fewer Jewish adults there are fewer Jewish 

 insane. 



A consideration of the foregoing examples of reductio ad absurdum 

 only serves to confirm the belief that, after all, there must be some 

 intimate relation existing between the racial, or inherent ethnic char- 

 acteristics of the Jews and the greater prevalence of insanity and 

 feeble-mindedness among them. In no instances shall we find any 

 reliable data that show the proportion of feeble-minded and insane 

 among the Jews to be less than among the general population; in 

 most countries it is undeniably larger, and in every instance the num- 

 ber of Jews suffering from mental defects are recruited from the ranks 

 of the congenitally inferior in a far greater proportion than is the case 

 among the non-Jews. 



In the light of our knowledge of the laws of heredity, there can be 

 but one thing responsible for the above-described condition. It must 

 necessarily have been brought about by too close inbreeding. 



That the excessive number of constitutional inferior insanities has 

 a partial explanation in the fact that long centuries of inbreeding have 



