ARE JEWS JEWS? 509 



been miieli intermixture with races who had less cause to exercise 

 their brains in the struggle for existence, we might expect a greater 

 admixture of dolichocephalism among them. To my mind a much 

 stronger case could have been made out for the admixture of the 

 Jews bj the large number of blondes among them, ranging to about 

 twenty per cent, but, as a rule, in Europe blond types are dolicho- 

 cephalic, and the evidence of admixture that could be drawn from 

 the admixture of blue eyes or brown hair among the Jews is coun- 

 terbalanced by that very evidence of their uniform round-headed- 

 ness, upon which Professor Ripley lays so much stress. In the 

 memoir I have frequently quoted I have given reasons for believ- 

 ing that there was a blond as well as a brunette type among the 

 ancient Jews, and till evidence is shown to the contrary the presence 

 of the fair Jew is only an indication of descent from the earlier 

 blond strain of the race. 



Professor Ripley has scarcely taken into account the more posi- 

 tive arguments I have adduced in my memoir for the comparative 

 purity of Jewish descent. I have pointed out a definite class of 

 Jews — the Cohens, or priestly descendants of Aaron — who can not, 

 according to Jewish law, marry proselytes. These still constitute, 

 I have calculated, some five per cent of Jews even at the present 

 day. He appears to think that this is merely a matter of name, and 

 asks how I would explain the existence of quasi-Jewish names, such 

 as Davis, Harris, Phillips, and Hart, among Christian populations of 

 the Anglo-Saxon world. As a matter of fact, it can be proved that, 

 on the contrary, these names among the Jews have been adopted for 

 " mimicry " reasons from the corresponding Christian names which 

 are mostly derived from the Bible. But, at the best, Professor Rip- 

 ley's argument would merely prove a certain amount of Jewish 

 blood among the Christian populations of Europe and America, 

 which nobody would deny. That Jews, under the pressure of per- 

 secution or for other reasons, have abjured their faith, married 

 Christian wives, and become merged in the surrounding populations, 

 is undoubtedly a fact, but does not in any way affect the relative 

 purity of the " remnant " which has remained true to its faith. It 

 certainly does not affect the very important fact that the ancestry 

 of at least five per cent of Jews at the present day can not have mar- 

 ried proselytes, owing to the rigid requirements of Jewish law. 



So far as I understand the latter part of Professor Ripley's sec- 

 ond article, he appears to contend that the remarkable similarity 

 of the Jewish physiognomy all over the world has no force in prov- 

 ing their racial unity. This is, of course, from the popular point of 

 view, the strongest argument which Professor Ripley has to meet. 

 Speaking generally, one can always tell a Jew or Jewess by the 



