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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



however, is the ratio of births with reference to the number of women 

 of child-bearing age present, viz., those between 15 and 49 years of 

 age, inclusive. This rate was found to be 72.87 per 1,000, as against 

 82.9 in Massachusetts, and 86 in Rhode Island. During the six years 

 in which this investigation was made by the census officials, the rates 

 among the Jews were decreasing perceptibly, showing the same tend- 

 ency as is observed among the Jews in Europe. Physicians who 

 practise their profession among the immigrant Jewish population of 

 New York City all agree that its fertility is decidedly decreasing. 

 Those who have been a longer time in the United States are always 

 inquiring about the best means of limiting the size of the family, while 

 the native Jews are hardly to be distinguished in this respect from the 

 average American city population. 



In no country in the civilized world is there to be seen such 

 formidable decline in fertility as among the Jews in western Europe. 

 In Germany the rates among the christians have remained about the 

 same since the beginning of the nineteenth century; since 1840 the 

 rates have been about 36, and remained so at the beginning of the 

 twentieth century. In some provinces it has only slightly decreased, 

 as in Prussia from 37.8 in 1841 to 36.5 in 1900. The most striking 

 decline in procreative capacity is said to be observed in France. But 

 even there it was 27.3 in 1841-50, and it sank to 22 in 1900. This 

 is considered the most appalling decline. But among the Jews racial 

 self-effacement is much more pronounced; in Prussia the birth rate 

 sank from 35.46 in 1822-40 to 18.71 in 1904; in Bohemia, Bavaria, 

 etc., the rates are lower, only 17 per 1,000 population; in large cities 

 like Berlin, it is even lower, almost on the verge of reaching a vanishing 

 point. The effects of this violent race suicide are evident to every 

 one: the number of native Jews in those countries is decreasing in rapid 

 strides to an extent unknown in the history of any civilized people. 



It has been stated that, notwithstanding the low birth rate, the 

 Jews have a higher marriage fecundity or fruitfulness than the chris- 

 tians. This is not borne out by facts. In the following table it is 

 seen that in Russia, Prussia and Bavaria the average number of chil- 

 dren to a marriage is smaller than among their non-Jewish neighbors. 



That this low fecundity has not always been observed among the Jews 

 is shown from figures about the Bavarian Jews collected by J. Thon. 



