THE JEWS: RACE AND ENVIRONMENT 265 



Ethnically there are hardly any differences between the Polish and 

 Lithuanian Jews, still the latter show a ratio of 173 in Wilna, which 

 again confirms the opinion that the excess in Wilna is due to neglect 

 in reporting female births. In Prussia also the proportion was in 

 1893-1902, 106.24 (105.94 among the christians) ; in Austria in 1901 

 it was 107.85 (106.04 among the christians). In Prague the number 

 of male births among the Jews in 1901 was equal to that of the female 

 births, although among the christians there was an excess of males 

 amounting to 104.1 per cent. In the United States the excess of male 

 births is not large among the Jews, only 103.16 (Census Bulletin No. 

 19, 1890), while among the general population of Massachusetts and 

 Rhode Island it is much higher. 



Proportion of Stillbirths 



Older statistics of stillbirths quoted by Bergman, Lagneau, Jacobs, 

 etc., indicate that stillbirths occur less frequently among Jews than 

 among Gentiles. More recent data on the subject show that this is 

 not the case with the Jews in every country. Thus in Amsterdam the 

 proportion of stillbirths in 1900 was among the Jews 3.48 per cent, of 

 the total number of births, and much larger among the non-Jewish 

 population, 4.81 per cent.; but in Warsaw it was in 1901 5.68 per 

 cent, among the Jews, and only 4.13 among the christians. On the 

 other hand, in Bavaria, it was in 1902-03 about the same among 

 both, Jews (2.6 per cent.) and christians (2.9 per cent.). In Austria 

 there are also no important differences. In 1901 the percentage of 

 stillbirths was among Jews 2.61 and among christians 2.79. The 

 most reliable statistics are collected in Prussia. The following are 

 the percentages 



a 



Jews. Christians. 



1875-1809 3.20 3.58 



1901 3.07 3.03 



1902 2.93 3.00 



1903 2.83 2.99 



There is practically no material difference in this respect among 

 Jews and christians in Prussia. It should be mentioned in this con- 

 nection that the smaller number of illegitimate births among the Jews 

 would lead one to expect a smaller percentage of stillbirths, because the 

 proportion of stillbirths is very large among illegitimates. The sug- 

 gestion made by some that the large proportion of boys born among 

 Jews is due to the fact that the percentage of stillbirths is small is 

 also not to be seriously considered, simply because the proportion of 

 stillbirths is not smaller among them. It must, however, not be over- 

 looked that the percentage of stillbirths among the Jews varies with 

 conditions observed among non-Jews in a given country. It is high 



