THE RACIAL GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE. 



173 



haps does the influence of heredity obstruct the temporary action 

 of environment. 



Whether this short stature of the Jew is a case of an acquired 

 characteristic which has become hereditary, we are content to leave 

 an open question. All we can say is, that the modern Semites in 

 Arabia and Africa are all of goodly size, far above the Jewish aver- 

 age.* This would tend to make us think that the harsh experi- 

 ences of the past have subtracted several cubits from the stature 

 of the people of Israel. In self-defense it must be said that the 

 Christian is not entirely to blame for the physical disability. It is 

 largely to be ascribed to the custom of early marriages among them. 

 This has probably been an efficient cause of their present degener- 

 acy in Russia, where Tschubinsky describes its alarming prevalence. 

 Leroy-Beaulieu says that it is not at all uncommon to find the com- 

 bined age of husband and wife, or even of father and mother, to be 

 under thirty years. The Shadchan, or marriage broker, has undoubt- 

 edly been an enemy to the Jewish people within their own lines. In 

 the United States, where thev 

 are, on the other hand, on the 



After Z^krez.ew5ki '95. 



up grade socially, there are in- 

 dications that this age of mar- 

 riage is being postponed, per- 

 haps even unduly, f 



A second indication in the 

 case of the Jew of uncommon- 

 ly hard usage in the past re- 

 mains to be mentioned. These 

 people are, anthropologically 

 as well as proverbially, nar- 

 row-chested and deficient in 

 lung capacity. Normally the 

 chest girth of a well-devel- 

 oped man ought to equal or 

 exceed one half his stature, yet 

 in the case of the Jews as a 

 class this is almost never the - 

 case. Majer and Kopernicki \ first established this in the case of the 

 Galician Jews. Stieda* gives additional testimony to the same effect. 

 Jacobs || shows the English Jews distinctly inferior to Christians in 

 lung capacity, which is generally an indication of vitality. In 



WAR5AW. 



ISR 



Wealthy Quarter 

 Medium 

 Poor Quarter 



* Collignon, 1887 a, pp. 211 and 326; and Bertholon, 1892, p. 41. 



f Jacobs, 1891, p. 50, shows it to be less common in other parts of Europe. In the 

 United States, Dr. Billings finds the marriage rate to be only 7.4 per 1,000 — about one 

 third that of the Northeastern States. % 1877, p. 59. * 1883, p. 71. || 1889, p. 84. 



