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Apoplexy Apostasy

twice as frequent among them as among the general population of that country. He attributes it to the emotional temperament of the Jew, to Predishis reputed avarice, his constant strugposition of gle with adverse conditions of life, and Italian the ceaseless persecution of the race. Lombroso further intimates that the Jews. frequent marriages of near kin among Jews, and the greater development and use of their brains, are also predisposing causes. The writer has compiled some statistics of American Jews, and finds that, in New York at least, the Jew is no more liable to Apoplexy than is the nonJew. Thus, from Dr. John S. Billings' report on "The Vital Statistics of the Jews in the United States" it is seen that among a Jewish population of 10,618 families, comprising 60,630 persons, there occurred 68 deaths from Apoplexy during the five years from 1885 to Dec. 15, 1889; which means that the death-rate from Apoplexy among the Jews was 1.12 per 1,000 population during five years, or an annual death-rate of .224 per 1,000. On consulting of the Board of Health" of it is found that during that year 1,059 persons died of Apoplexy in the Borough The estimated population of Manof Manhattan. hattan in that year was about 1,900,000, which gives a death-rate from Apoplexy of .55 per 1,000 of the general population; and, according to the census of 1900, the mortality from this disease in the United These figures show that States was .666 per 1,000. the

"Annual Report

New York

city for 1898

the death-rate from Apoplexy is less than one-half that among the general population of

among Jews Manhattan.

From the " Report on Vital Statistics in New York City " of the Eleventh Census (1890) in the United States it appears that the death-rate from Apoplexy in New York city during the six years ending May 31, 1890, was as shown in the following table: Deaths per

12

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

100,000,

or Persons

Whose Mothers Were

BOI'.N IN

France Ireland Scotland

England and Wales

Germany United States

Canada

78.56 78.11 71.38 69.15 58.67 49.15 46.21

Bohemia

36.08

Scandinavia

Hungary (mostly Jews). Italy

Russia and Poland most all Jews)

19.10 16.59

(al-

14.22

city the death-rate

ples of other nations. Further statistics collected

the chief etiological factors in the production of Apoplexy are con-

when Three Infrequent

muscuand the abuse of alcohol

Syphilis, prolonged

sidered.

Jar exertion,

Factors.

are found to be important antecedents These of cases of Apoplexy. three factors are infrequent among the Jews, who might, therefore, rather be expected to be less liable But the busy, anxious life of the to the affection. Jew, his constant and hard struggle against adverse

number

in a large

conditions, have been operative in producing among Jews a number of apoplectics equal in relative pro-

portion to that of non-Jews. Bibliography: John P. Beddoe, Anthropology and Medicine, in Allbutt, System of Medicine, i., London, 1895; 0. Lombroso, II Antixemitismo e i Oiudei, German transl., Leipsic, 1894; John S. Billings, Vital Statistics of the Jews in the United States [Census Bulletin, No. 19), 1890; Annual Reports of the Mount Sinai, Beth Israel, New York, and St.

Luke's Hospitals,

New

York.

M.

3.

by the writer from the

annual reports of two Jewish hospitals, son with two non-Jewish hospitals in city, give the following table

in

compari-

New York

JUDAISM



Terms derived from the Greek and

ala ("defection, revolt ")

political sense ") (I

"Contra Ap."

i.

19,

to signify rebellion

Mace. §

4),

airo/jra-

a Josephus,

inrooTarric ("rebel in

xi. 14, xiii.

16



applied in a religious sense

and rebels against God and the

Law, desertion and deserters of the faith of Israel. The words are used in the Septuagint for "no:

Num. xxviii.

xiv. 9; Josh. xxii. 19, 22; for^JftD: II Chron. 19, xxxiii. 19; for VI1D: Isa. xxx. 1; and

for hv'h'l I Kings, xxi. 13 Aquilas to Judges xix. Accordingly it is stated in 22; 1 Sam. xxv. 17. I Mace. ii. 15 that " the officers of the king compelled the people to apostatize," that is, to revolt against

God

and Jason, the faithless high pursued by all and hated as a deserter of As the law " (roii vdfjov (nroGTaT7/c II Mace. V. 8). the incarnation of rebellion against God and the Law, the serpent is called apostate (LXX., Job xxvi. 13; and Symmachus, Job xxiv. 13; compare the

of Israel;

priest, is "



II Thess. xix.,

ii.

3



Revelation of John xiv. 6



Gen. R.

DWIP'BN).

The rabbinical language uses the following expresJer. ii. 11; sions for apostate (a) 1D1D, from VDn and TDD (Suk. 56i; Ab. Zarah 26J; 'Er. 69ns).

m

(b) "ttOISTO,

from *idb> (" to persecute or force abandon-

ment

of the faith") (Yer. Suk. v. 55d;

Hebrew

Gen. R. lxxxii.

Expres-

Sifra,

Yer. 'Er. vi. 1 [236] Targ. Onkelos to sions. Ex. xii. 43). The Apostates during the Syrian persecution are called "Meshummedaya " in Megillat Ta'anit vi. (ed. Mantua in later editions the word "Resha'im" is substituted

Wayikra,

Table Showing Number op Patients Suffering prom Apoplexy Jewish Patients.

Ft.

APOSTASY AND APOSTATES FROM



from Apoplexy was 59.37 per 100,000. From the above figures it is evident that the Russian and Polish Jews are far less frequently attacked by Apoplexy than are the peo-

For the whole

This gives about an equal rate for Jews and nonJews, as might have been expected to be the case



ii.





in

New York

City.