Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 62.djvu/349

Rh affairs is further aggravated by the favorable expectation of life for the Jew, something quite distinct from the matter of health or capacity for work. Temperate habits and the religious factor in the conduct of ordinary matters of diet and life, as well as their absence from hazardous occupations, contribute to this result. An apparent longevity also results from the fact that infant mortality among them is exceedingly low. The centuries through which these people have been associated with the worst phases of civilized life have undoubtedly led to an inherited ability on the part of the children to exist in unfavorable surroundings and an increased power of resistance to certain diseases, but it is also to be noted that in the humblest Jewish household the first symptoms of acute illness will not be overlooked nor neglected, and that the sick child will receive the best available professional attention, together with such a degree of unremitting care and attention on the part of the family, as can seldom be realized among Gentiles of the same station in life.