The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1876-05-11
Jewish Vitality.

The Jews are the healthiest and long
est-lived people on the face of the earth.
Their immunity from diseases of all
forms is remarkable. Even the great
epidemics pass them by with the infection
of much lighter scourge than falls upon
ether races. 1t is declared that the
cholera never chose one of them for its
victim, and, in fact, the deaths from this
malady have been 50 few as almost to
bear out the assertion. Suicide is seldom
practiced among them. 1t has been COM
puted, from statistics returnedin certain
provinces of Austria and Germany, that,
in population of 1000, 900, the proper
ton of suicides between the Jews and
the mixed white races was as one to four.
From data carefully studied, Mayer
ascertained that, in Furth, the proper
ton of Jewish children who die between
the ages of one and five years is ten per
cent, and of Christian children of the
same age it is fourteen per cent. M. Neh-
vile, calculating from the statistics of
Frankfort; shows even a greater vitality
existing among the children Of the Jews.
He also finds from his data that the aver
age duration of the life of the Jews is
fOrty-eight years and nine months, while
of the Christian it is thirty-six years and
eleven months. In the total of all ages,
half of the Jews born reach the age of
fifty-three years and one month, whilst
half the Christians born attain the age of
thirty-six years only. One-fourth of the
Jewish population live beyond seventy
one years, but the same proportion of the
Christian population live only beyond
fifty-nine years and ten months. The
official returns of Prussia give the Jews
a mortality of Lei per cent, and the
whole kingdom 2.62 per cent. While the
Jews double their numbers in forty-One
and one-half years, others require a
period of tifty-One years. In 1849 there
was in Prussia one death for every forty
Jews, and one death for every thirty-two
of the remaining population.
Commenting upon these statistics,
which are brought together by DR. Rich
ardsOniu " Diseases of Modern Life" that
author ascribes the high vitality of the
Jews to their sober way of living. The
Jew drinks less than his even Christian >
he takes, as a rule, better food he marries
earlier; he rears the children he has
brought into the world with greater
personal care; he tends the aged more
thOUghtfully; he takes better care of
his poor and he takes good care of him
self. He does not boast of tomorrow,
but he provides for it and he holds te-
naciOusly to ali he gets. To our Saxon
eyes and Celtic eyes he carries these vir-
tues too far; but thereby he wins, be-
comes powerful, and scOrning bOisterOus
mirth and passion, is comparatively
happy"
1t is a fact in the history of the
Jewish race that they nowhere have paid
especial attention to the development of
physical capacity. They do not from
choice enter a military life, they. estab-
fish no public games, are not given to
athletic exercises, and pursue no definite
means for attaining great corporal
strength and stature. As people they
do not reach a high physical standard,
and still their vitality is greater than
that of any other civilized race. In ap-
plying these facts to the question of the
effects of severe physical exercise, DR..
Richardson remarks: &" 1t would be i'm
possible, and, in truth, unnecessary, to
enforce any stronger argument as to the
negative value of excessive physical eX-
ertiOn in sustaining the vital power of a
race. In the course of centuries the
most powerful nations have died out,
and empires of perfect physical beauty
and chiyalTic fame have passed away.
But, through all these vicissitudes, one
race, cultivating none of the sO-called
athleticand Inequalities and following
none Of the exercises popular:zed as
hardy invigOrating,' has held its ire
Pressible own, TO remain a mere numer-
Gus people, in its totality, than ever; a
people still presenting a more tenacious
life than its neighbors, and showing, as it
is relieved of the cruel restraint long
forced on it, the continuance also OF
mental force and of commanding genius
in art, in letters, in politics, in com.
merce and in science = ObI c000 Tr h7yg7e