The Worthington advance., 1899-11-17
Jews ARE LONGER LIVED.
Their Temperate Habits and Care
fulness In Diet Pro-
t long Life.

1ulneoS In Diet FRO. ,#
long Life.
From time immemorial physical Wig.
or has been considered a 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
masculine race. He is, on the whole,
a long-lived race. He 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 country dwell
er and despises the town.
In contradistinction 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
v-irn1 if hic vitality
Jew is understood, and markedly So.
His mental vigor, however, is unim-
paired, and probably on the whole is
superior to his neighbor's. He 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 a short-lived man.
And here is surprising feature. Pos
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 if two 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 ~ 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 217 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 account they should
be 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 we'll as from some other dis.
eases, to the excellent system of meat
inspection prescribed by the Mosaic
law. Hoffman says that in London as
for sale are rejected as unfit for con-
sumption by the Jews. Probably the
temperate habits for which the Jews,
as 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 that he drinks. He is seldom ad.
dicted 10 the intemperate 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
frugal diet, his temperate use of liquors.
his 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 frugality
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.
Destroying the Point.