36 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



according to the age of the individual whether he is less than or over 

 fifteen years old, we find that the mortality of the young is less than 

 one half that of the christians. In 1904 48.89 per cent, of all the 

 deaths among christians in that country occurred in individuals less 

 than fifteen years of age, while among the Jews only 19.78 per cent, 

 of all deaths were in persons of these ages. In Berlin it was in 1904, 

 christians 42.05 and Jews 20.28, also less than one half among the 

 Jews. In Amsterdam the deaths recorded in 1900 were distributed 

 by ages as follows: 



Age Christians Jews 



— 1 25.23 per cent. 18.76 per cent. 



1-13 15.68 per cent. 11.72 per cent. 



13-64 33.58 per cent. 33.38 per cent. 



64 -f- 25.51 per cent. 36.14 per cent. 



Here also the mortality during infancy and childhood was smaller 

 among the Jews than among the christians; between the ages of 13 

 to 64 it was equal among both classes, while among the old it was more 

 frequent among the Jews. The same condition has been found in 

 Hungary, where the mortality of children below seven years of age is 

 49.5 per cent, among the christian population, and only 43.69 per cent, 

 among the Jews. 



Objections may be raised against this method of calculating the 

 mortality of children, because it must first be ascertained whether the 

 distribution of the population by age classes is the same in both groups. 

 This is particularly the case with the Jews, whose birth rates are lower 

 than those of christians. A smaller number of births means a smaller 

 number of infants, and consequently a smaller number of deaths. The 

 best way to compare the mortality of Jews and christians is to calcu- 

 late the proportion of deaths per 1,000 persons at each age period, i. e., 

 to ascertain the death rates at each age in both classes, Jews and chris- 

 tians. But this is difficult because there are no available data pub- 

 lished in census reports. The exact infantile mortality is, however, easily 

 ascertained by finding the ratio of deaths of infants below one year old 

 to the number of births in a given year (excluding still-births). In 

 the following table are given some figures about the infant mortality 

 in some European countries: 



Deaths of Infants per 1,000 Births 

 Country Jews Christians 



Amsterdam (1900) 92.77 139.56 



European Russia ( 1897 ) 150.80 274.30 



Cracow ( 1894-97 ) 155.47 170.84 



Hungary ( 1902) 95.20 164.60 



Here also a lower infant mortality is seen among the Jews. Of 

 1,000 Jewish children born among the Jews in Amsterdam during 1900, 



