THE JEWS: RACE AND ENVIRONMENT 5°5 



ance characteristic of our age, the number of mixed marriages has 

 increased among persons belonging to all creeds, including the Jews. 



Fertility of Mixed Marriages 



Besides the religious and sentimental objections which are being 

 made against intermarriage by Jews and christians, many other argu- 

 ments were brought forward against them. Some have stated that 

 mixed marriages are infertile, that a large proportion remain sterile 

 and that the average number of children born to each marriage is 

 much below the average of pure marriages. It has also been asserted 

 that intermarriage of different races leads to physical, moral and intel- 

 lectual deterioration. Only few of the virtues of each are inherited, 

 but most of the vices are transmitted to the progeny. 



The fertility of mixed marriages has especially been discussed by 

 Joseph Jacobs, who calculated that even if one tenth of all the Jews 

 and Jewesses married outside of their faith, only a little over two per 

 cent, would be left of the original ten per cent, within six generations 

 or 200 years. This idea prevailed, until recently Arthur Euppin, after 

 a thorough study of Prussian statistics, showed conclusively that there 

 is no real basis for any such assertion. The fertility of mixed mar- 

 riages in Prussia is not much below that of pure Jewish marriages. 



Superficially, statistics would seem to indicate a lower birth rate 

 of Jews married to non-Jews, as can be seen from the following figures, 

 calculated by J. Thon, showing that in Bavaria the fecundity of the 



various classes of marriages was as follows : 



Pure 



r~ 

 Christian Jewish Mixed 



1876-1900 2.64 3.54 1.58 



1902 4.40 2.20 1.38 



1903 4.31 2.31 2.11 



In Prussia and Hungary the same is shown to be the case, while in 

 the city of Berlin the fertility of mixed marriages appears even lower. 

 The percentage of complete sterility is also stated to be higher among 

 mixed than among pure Jewish couples. In New South Wales 13.41 

 per cent, of all the Jews married to Jewesses were sterile, while among 

 Jews married to christians 30.55 per cent, were sterile. The average 

 number of children was 3.48 among the general population, 4.06 

 among the Jews and only 2.01 among Jews married to christians. 12 



All these figures are no safe criterion as to the fertility of mixed 

 marriages, because the usual method applied in calculating the material 



"Results of Census of N. S. W., 1901, Pt. III., 1902, Pt. V., 1903. 



