October 9, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



;23 



riages. The statistics of sterility show a similar 

 result. 



The evidence for the greater longevity of Jews 

 is not so imeqiiivocal as is usually supposed. Their 

 insanitary mode of hf e, ^ weak constitution, greater 

 proportion of men unfit for military service, would 

 not indicate any such advantage. 

 Social influneces favoring longevity 

 are their pursuit of rather long-lived 

 trades (tailoring excepted) ; greater 

 care of Jewish women; the tran- 

 quilizing effect of their rehgion and 

 family life, and so on. Mr. Jacobs 

 does not lay much importance on 

 the effect of the observance of the 

 dietary laws. They do not secure 

 immunity from disease. Finally, 

 their habihty to special diseases 

 requires further evidence. Keeping 

 in mind the reciprocal influence 

 between nature and nurture, we can 

 conclude that the biostatical pecu- 

 harities of Jews are social, and only 

 secondarily racial, and ' cannot 

 therefore be adduced to show com- 

 mon origin.' If 

 by 'Jewish' we 

 mean properties 

 due to origin, 

 and by ' Judaic ' 

 those due to re- 

 hgion and cus- 

 tom, then their 

 biostatics is 

 Judaic, not Jew- 

 ish. 



Jews are short- 

 est and narrow- 

 est of Europeans 

 (Moyars perhaps 

 are shorter). 

 Their height is 5 

 ft. 4 in.; girth 

 31.6 inches. The 

 importance o f 

 social influences 

 is seen in the 

 measurement of 

 130 English Jews of the better class, whose average 

 height was 5 ft. 7 in., and girth 35.2 inches. As to 

 shape of head they are brachycephalic, or short- 

 headed, the cephahc index being 83.4. They have 

 fewer blue and gray-eyed individuals, and more 

 brown and dark-eyed, than their Teutonic neigh- 

 bors. So also their hair and skin are darker. The 



1 Particular reference is here made to their overcrowded 

 life in Ghetti, where 266 houses averaged 29.3 persons per 

 house. 



COMPOSITE FROM FIVE PHOTOGRAPHS 

 OF JEWISH BOYS. 



THE FIVE COMPONENTS OF THE ABOVE COMPOSITE 



statistics on color-blindness are unanimous, mak- 

 ing three Jewish children so afflicted where only 

 two would be found in other races. The common 

 notion as to length of nose is supported by measure- 

 ments, while that of the thickness of the lii)S is not. 

 At the mstance of Mr. Jacobs, j)hoto.graphs of 

 boys from the Hebrew free school of 

 London were taken with almost no 

 selection, and from these IMr. Galton 

 prepared composites according to 

 his well-known process. 'They 

 were children of poor parents, 

 dirty little fellows individuaUy, 

 but wonderfully beautiful as I 

 think in the composites,' says ]\Ir. 

 Galton. He adds that they are the 

 best specimens of a composite that 

 he has ever produced. There are 

 two sets of the composites, one 

 giving full face, the other profile 

 views. Two groups of five sepa- 

 rate photographs accompany the 

 composites, as also a co-composite 

 of the two composites thus formed. 

 A fourth composite formed from 

 photographs of 

 Jewish young 

 men is also 

 given. The 

 printing of the 

 c omponents 

 along with the 

 composites 

 makes this con- 

 tribution to 

 composite pho- 

 tography es- 

 pecially valua- 

 ble. Of the 

 faithfulness 

 with which 

 they portray 

 the Jewish type 

 there is no 

 doubt. An art- 

 ist found in one 

 of them a re- 

 alization of his 

 ideal of Spinoza when a lad. Mr. Jacobs tliinks that 

 here we have the nearest representation of the lad 

 Samuel, or the youthful David. He also identifies 

 the features of the captive Jews of Lachish in the 

 Assyrian has relief (B. C. 701) with the modern feat- 

 ures, thus showing the persistency of the Jewish 

 type. ' If these Jewish lads, selected almost at 

 random and with parents from opposite parts of 

 Europe, yield so markedly individual a type, it 



