In France, Dr. Neufville found that, of one hundred children in the first five years of life, among the Jewish population, 12.9 die; while from the same number of the same aged class of Christians 24.1 die. One-half of all the Christians die at thirty-six years, and one-half of all the Jews at fifty-three years and one month.
Dr. John S. Billings has gathered statistics relating to 10,618 Jewish families, consisting of 60,630 persons,[70] living in the United States in December, 1889, mostly descendants of Jews from the northern or middle nations of Europe. For our purpose only the deductions as to death-rate and tendency to longevity will be given. In this valuable paper Dr. Billings says: “When we come to examine the reports of deaths for five years furnished by these Jewish families, we find that they give an average annual death-rate of only 7.1 per 1000, which would be about one-half of the annual death-rate among other persons of the same average social class and condition living in this country.” To this he adds that, provided the deaths at different ages among the Jews have been correctly reported, this race will, on comparison with those of other races, show a greater tendency to longevity, as the Jewish expectation of life is at each age markedly greater than that of the class of people who insure their lives, the average excess being a little over twenty per cent.
In speaking of the death-rate among children, Dr. Billings makes the following comparisons: “The low death-rate among the Jews is especially marked among the children, and this corresponds to European experience. Thus in Prussia, in 1887, the death-rate of the Jews under fifteen years of age was 5.63 for 1000, while among the remainder of the people it was 10.46 per 1000.” This result he accounts for partly to the fact that among the Jews illegitimacy is comparatively rare and to the high rate of mortality among the illegitimate born, which raises the average of the other classes.
In regard to the immunity of the race from consumption or tubercular disease, the statistics of the above Jewish families gives to the Jews less than one-third of the number of deaths from these diseases than what occurs among the others as to the male population, and less than one-fourth as to the female population. These statistics coincide with the observations of the writer on this part of the subject, and are even more than corroborated by the French War-Office Reports from Algeria, where the deaths from consumption among the Christians amount to 1 for each 9.3 deaths, and among the Jews to 1 in 36.9, while among the Mohammedans it is only 1 in 40.7 deaths. In Algeria the relative mortality from all causes is only about three-fifths of that of the Christian, and the Turk, although seeming to enjoy a greater exemption from phthisical or tubercular diseases than the Jew, falls below the Jew in exemption from deaths due to general causes, as his mortality is one-eighth greater than that of the Jew. Dr. Billings gives us some interesting food for thought in the course of his article and some more particularly bearing on the subject of immunity from consumption. He asks: “Are these differences due to race characteristics, properly so-called, to original and inherited differences in bodily organization, or are they, rather, to be attributed to the customs, habits, and modes of life of the two classes of people?”
Some years ago, Henry I. Bowditch, of Boston, put on foot an extended system of inquiry in regard to ascertaining the causes or antecedents of consumption in the State of Massachusetts. In answer to some of the questions of the circular, Rabbi Dr. Guinzburg, of Boston, answered as follows, under date of October 29, 1872:—
1st. The number of Jews living in Boston is about 5000.
2d. There certainly have not died of consumption, during the last five years, more than eight or ten Jews in the various congregations.
To this Dr. Bowditch adds, as follows:—
“If Dr. Guinzburg’s data be correct, they show a very great immunity from consumption on the part of the Jews, compared with the citizens generally, as will be seen by the following comparison between these numbers and those procured from the Registration Reports, published by the State. In the report published in 1869, page 64, we find that for the five years preceding 1869 the annual average of deaths by consumption was 338 for every 100,000 living. These data from Dr. Guinzburg and the State Report give the following table:—
| Proportion of Deaths to 100,000 of Living. | |
| All religions, | 338 |
| Jews, | 40 |