74 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



great care and watchfulness of Jewish mothers. There he leaves the 

 matter. One naturally inquires why the Jewish mothers in those con- 

 gested wards display a solicitude for their babes so much greater than 

 other mothers in the same district, that half as many Jewish infants die 

 as Irish, and two and a half times as many children of native Ameri- 

 cans die as of Jewish ! It will not do to say, as Dr. Fishberg does in 

 one place, that fewer Jewish mothers work away from home. That is 

 only putting the same fact in another way. Why do they not go away 

 from home? They are just as poor as the Germans, Irish and native 

 Americans in those wards. If a phenomenon of this sort were observed, 

 say, among birds — such a greater affectionateness on the part of one 

 set of mother-birds than on the part of another set, with such an 

 astonishing difference in infant mortality — the ornithologist would 

 unquestionably be strongly inclined to think he was dealing with 

 different species of birds. Dr. Fishberg is studying types of humanity, 

 whose evolution and differentiation are more along mental, moral and 

 social lines than along physical lines; but when he comes to a phe- 

 nomenon that is of a spiritual character he passes it by as a matter of 

 small significance. 



One would think that since Dr. Fishberg is so averse to attributing 

 any of the observed peculiarities of the Jews to race, he would look for 

 their causes in moral and religious habits that are distinctively Jewish; 

 for if the Jews are not a race in the physical sense, they must be a reli- 

 gious community. But Dr. Fishberg's aversion to doing the one thing 

 seems to be as great as his aversion to doing the other. He admits, for 

 example, that the Jews all over the world show a remarkable freedom 

 from alcoholism. " Many physicians state that in their professional 

 experience they have never treated one for inebriety." Drunkards are 

 rare among them. To what is this sobriety due? Neither to race, nor 

 to religious or moral training, according to Dr. Fishberg, but simply 

 to their life in Ghettos, which cut them off from the ways of the 

 gentiles and gave them an abhorrence for their customs. The proof is 

 that as soon as they emerge from the Ghettos inebriety increases among 

 them. Here again we have only the author's unsupported statement as 

 to a matter of fact. 



The Jews are credited with immunity from certain diseases and 

 greater susceptibility to others. Dr. Fishberg admits their surprising 

 immunity from tuberculosis. Even when living in the most crowded 

 and unsanitary quarters, their mortality from this disease is far below 

 that of other people. What is the cause of this comparative immunity ? 

 Some say it is race; others, that it is their dietary scrupulousness. It 

 is neither, says Dr. Fishberg. Their immunity is partly due to their 

 freedom from alcoholism; partly to their long experience in urban life 

 which has cut off those too weak to withstand the disease, leaving only 



