38 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



the Jews is high (compared with conditions among western European 

 Jews), the infant mortality is also higher, though not so high as the 

 mortality of the Greek orthodox, whose birth rates are the highest in 

 Europe. 



Arthur Euppin, who has studied the problem thoroughly, insists 

 that the superiority of the expectation of life of the Jews is mainly 

 due to the higher infant mortality among christians, which drags down 

 the average duration of life. " To use a coarse example : The expecta- 

 tion of life of a christian child on the day of its birth is, roughly stated, 

 about forty years, as against sixty years of the Jewish child; at the 

 tenth birthday the probable duration of life of the christian child is 

 fifty-five, while that of the Jewish child is sixty-five; and at the 

 twentieth birthday the probable duration of life is, for both, seventy 

 years, i. e., the expectation of life of the christian is equal to that of 

 the Jew as soon as the christian has passed his years of infancy and 

 childhood, and reached adolescence." 



" The best illustration," Euppin goes on to say, " of this condition, 

 is perhaps to be seen when we take definite statistical data of a given 

 city, say Budapest, Hungary. The mortality during 1902 was 14.17 

 per 1,000 among the Jews, and 21.81 among the christians. The Jews 

 were favored by the following factors : 



1. A Low Infantile Mortality. — The proportion of death of infants under 

 one year was during that year 9.52 per cent, of all the births from Jewish 

 mothers and 16.46 per cent, of all the births from christian mothers. If the 

 infant mortality was as high among the Jews as among the christians the 

 number of Jews who died during that year would have been larger by 320, and 

 through that the mortality would have been increased by 1.89, i. e., the death 

 rate would have been 16.06 instead of 14.17. 



2. The Lower Birth Rate of the Jews. — The birth rate per 1,000 population 

 was, namely, 27.29 among the Jews and 32.74 among the christians. If the 

 Jews had relatively as many births as the christians had, the mortality rate, 

 on the basis of the Jewish infant mortality just determined above, would have 

 been larger by 0.48 per 1,000; their general death rate would have been in- 

 creased to 16.54 from 16.06. 



3. The Smaller Mortality of Children under Ten Years of Age (excepting 

 Infants under One Year). — The proportion of deaths of children between one 

 and ten years old was 2.15 per 1,000 among the Jews and 3.73 among the 

 christians. If the Jewish mortality at these ages were as high as that of the 

 christians, 266 more Jews would have died during that year, and the general 

 mortality rates would have increased by 1.57 per 1,000, or instead of 16.54 it 

 would have been 18.11. 



In this manner one half of the difference in death rates between 

 Jews and christians in Budapest is wiped out. It stands now as 18.11 

 for Jews, and 21.81 for christians. The remaining difference in the 

 rates of 3.7 per 1,000 in favor of the Jews, can also be accounted for 

 by other social factors, and no special physiological tenacity of life 

 of the Jews need be considered as the cause. One has only to recall 

 that alcoholism is very rare among the Jews, and that the Sabbath 



