St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1882-10-13
Vitality of the Jewish Race.

The members of the Jewish race
have, up to the present period of histo-
ry, presented the most remarkable OF
all the vitalities, and those of them
who are united to the other races 10y
ties of blood, though not by any pro
| fession or religious indication, are
hardly less privileged. In England
and Wales we compute the number of
prOfessed Jews does not exceed 10000,
some say not over 10000 but i'll ad-
dition to these, if physiological read
ings be true, and feel sure they are,
there is an enormous Christianizcd
Jewish population which, under eN-
ceedingly broad and Protestant prin-
ciples, accepts the Christian faith with
tendency to Puritanic simplicity and
all but Judaic method, and in which
the names, the beliefs, the traditions
of the Jewish people, as rendered in
their sacred writings, find their repe-
titiOns. But | notice now, in regard
to vitality, the most truly typical of
the Semitic type, those, namely, who
profess and call themselves Jews, and
it is they, specially repeat, who show
an exceptional tcnacitv of life, under
circumstances which ut first sight
would seem to cause the utmost re
sistance to life. | have investigated
this matter with the greatest care, and,
not To trouble You by repeating in
detail what have already published,
| NAV state in brief terms that during
all ages of life, under all conditions of
life to which it has been subjected,
under prosecutions the most painful,
under suppression of liberty the most
determinatc, under residences in con-
fined quarters of towns that were prac-
tically prisons. under isolation the
most pitiful, under cOntempts the
most cruel, the Jewish family has
maintained II vitality and health which
is mt once il model to the other families
of men among which it has been des-
tined, or, should rather have said
permitted, to exist. The Jews are not
free from prOclivitics to disease of Il
serious constitutional kind. They are
comparatively free from consumption !;
they are comparatively free from dis
eases arising from unchastity ; they
are very free from those zymOtic dis
eases oI pestilences. smallpox, measles,
scarlet fever, and such like, which
carry off so largely the children of
other races they are very free, that
is to say, they have been very free,
from the diseases which spring from
poverty and they are very free from
the diseases which spring from idle
ness, ostentatiOn and luxury. The
particular hereditary disease from
which they suffer is cancer. Accord
ing to my experience they are more
disposed to that malady than either
Saxon or Cclt, but it is not sufficiently
widespread to effect the general re-
suits of the tenacious life pertaining
to them. For the benefits they have
received in the way of life and health
the Jewish family has been indebted
to wise sanitary laws and regulations
bcqueathed to them from of old, to
thrift and provision for the morrow, to
peacefulneSs of heart. to domestic
virtue, and most of all to sobriety. 1t
is hard to tell whether, when set free
from every political and religious op-
preston, left to make their own course
in open competition with other peO-
plies, receiving from their fathers the
wealth of their past, wealth of wisdom,
wealth of simple LONELINESS, wealth of
riches, wealth of vitality, they will re
tain and bank the same, or take out
and squander all. AT the present time
it is as if the finger of prophecy
was pointing to the last-named fate
DIR. Richardson in Frazer's Magazine.