Albuquerque daily citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1895-1903, 1899-12-30
JEWS LIVE LONGER.
Withstand Disease Better Than
Do Gentilea
They Are Temperate in All Things
ana Their Meat IL Thoroughly
inspscted-soms intsy-
eating Facts.

From time immemorial physical Wig.
or has been considered . sine qua non
to longevity. The races that distin-
guished themselves in the history Of the
world for their aggressiveness, their
physical prowess and valor, have, In the
main, the Family Doctor" observes,
been Injured to hard manual labor. out
of-door exercise and active modes Of
living. The Greeks of old were as as
siduous in their devotion to their sports
and games as the Englishman of to-
day is to his national pastimes Of crick-
ct and racing and the German to his
fencing. The Teuton OF the nineteenth
century, in physical development, sur
passes all other races and rules the
world. He is what some one has dubbed
a masculine race. He is, On the whole,
n long-lived race. lie works with his
hands, with his body, with his legs,
and with his brain-in fact, he works
altogether. He is not apt to stunt one
portion Of his physical makeup to aid
in developing another portion. In his
normal condition he is a country dwell
er and despises the town.
In contrnlistinction TO the Teuton,
let us consider the Jew, and we speak
now of the masses. Physically he is
poorly developed. Centuries of oppres-
sion have stamped out his physical
vigor, IL not his vitality. The European
jew is understood, and markedly so.
His mental vigor, however, is unim-
paired, and probably on the whole is
superior to his neighbours. lie is a
city dweller and betrays an inherent
dislike for hard manual labor or for
physical exercise in any form. He is
averse to out-of-door sports. He pre-
fers TO live by his brain rather than by
his muscle, His chest capacity is linn
tied, and he possesses many other fea-
lures OF physical degeneracy. In fact,
his physical makeup is what one would
expect to find in n short-lived man.
And here Is a surprising feature. Pos
sessing so few of the elements so long
considered as necessary to longevity,
the jew is probably the longest lived
OF any race of people now in existence.
His tenacity Of life is remarkable.
In spite of the social conditions which
surround the mass of the Hebrew popu-
lation the world over, and especially in
the large cities Of America, where they
form a large percentage of the pop
ulation. the death rate among the jew
ish inhabitants is but little over half
OF that of the American population.
Prof. William z. Ripley, in his papers
on the racial geography of Europe in
the Popular Science Monthly, discusses
this question very ably and very fully.
He states that IL i've groups of 100 in
fants each, one Jewish and one of aver
age American parentage, be born upon
the same day, one-half the Americans
will die within AZ years, while the first
half OF the Jews will not succumb to
disease before the expiration of II
years.
According to Lombroso, of 1000 Jews
born az die before the age OF seven
years, while 453 Christians, more than
twice as many, are likely to die within
the same period. The immunity of the
Jewish population from accident on
account of their indoor occupation will
account for some of the discrepancy,
but ON this very accoun they should
he more liable to epidemic and other
disease. This is not wholly true. how
ever. They show an abnormally small
proportion OF deaths from consumption
and pneumonia, which are responsible
for the largest proportion of deaths
amng the American population. Prof.
Ripley ascribes their immunity from
this, as well as from some other dis
eases, to the excellent system of meat
inspection prescribed by the Mosaic
law. Hoffman says that in London as
much MS one-third Of the meats offered
for sale are rejected as unfit for con-
sumption by the Jews. Probably the
temperate habits for which the Jews,
as a race, are noted will account to
some extent for their longevity.
The jew is temperate in almost all
that he does, in all that he eats, and in
all thai he drinks, lie is seldom adj
dicted TO the incorporate use of alco-
holic liquors. He abstains from certain
varieties OF meat and those of the rich
er and more heating kinds, so that his
%frr1al diet, his temperate use Of liquors,
las abstinence from certain foods which
are unwholesome, account for his re-
markable freedom from Bright's dis
ease and diseases of the liver, which
are largely diseases Of intemperance.
To sum up, the jew, in spite of his
physical condition and his social sur
~roundings, and by reason of his tenn
perance and his sobriety, his frugallty
and his freedom from accident, con-
trives, on the average, to live nearly
twice as long as his more careless and
imprudent neighbors.-Pall Mall Ga
zette.