4 o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



lay sisters) furnish very few suicides. A study of more recent sta- 

 tistics about the Jews confirms this view. In eastern Europe and the 

 orient, where they are ardently devoted to their religion, a Jewish 

 suicide is very rare; in some cities in Russia or Galicia, with over 20,000 

 Jews, more than ten years often pass without a Jew taking his own 

 life. During the first half of the last century, when the social and 

 economic condition of the Jews in western Europe was not much 

 superior to that of their eastern European coreligionists of to-day, self- 

 destruction was also rare among them. With the decline of the in- 

 tensity of religious belief which is characteristic of the contemporaneous 

 Jews in western Europe and America an adoption of the habits and 

 customs of the christian population has been noted, among which sui- 

 cide may be mentioned as a social fact important for study. 



In eastern Europe suicide is even to-day less frequent among the 

 Jewish than among the christian population. In Cracow, for instance, 

 one per cent, of all the deaths during 1895-1900 was self-inflicted 

 among the christians, as against only 0.4 per cent, among the Jews; 

 in Budapest, Hungary, the rates in 1902 were as follows: 



Number of Suicides pee 1,000 Population 



Christians Jews 



Men 6.79 4.61 



Women 2.35 1.00 



Total 4.44 2.88 



Suicide is here less frequent among the Jews than among others. 

 But proceeding to western Europe, where the Jews are affected 

 by what Morselli characterizes as the ' universal and complex influence 

 to which we give the name civilization/ the proportion of suicides is 

 at present much larger among the Jews than among christians, although 

 but fifty years ago it was uncommon. Thus in Wurtemberg during 

 1846-60 the rate was on the average annually among protestants 

 113.5, among catholics 77.9, and among Jews only 65.6 per 1,000,000 

 population. During 1898-1902 the rates increased to 252 among the 

 Jews and to only 162.7 among the christians. In Bavaria the suicide 

 rates were during 1844-56, Jews 105.9, protestants 135.4 and cath- 

 olics 49.1 per 1,000,000. Since 1870 a steady increase was noted as 

 follows : 



Number of Suicides per 1,000,000 Population 



Catholics Protestants Jews 



1870-79 73.5 194.6 115.3 



1880-89 95.3 221.7 185.8 



1890-99 92.7 210.2 212.4 



The increase in the rates of self-destruction among the Jews has 

 thus been so pronounced within the thirty years since 1870 that it is 

 now much higher than among the christian population of Bavaria. 

 The greatest increase has, however, been observed in Prussia. During 



