Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 69.djvu/267

Rh The average number of children per marriage was during 1876-80, 4.75; it decreased during the next five-year period to 4.15; during 1886-90 to 3.49; then a further fall was observed to 3.01; during 1896-1900 it was only 2.50, and during 1902 and 1903 it again decreased, falling to an average of 2.20 and 2.31 children, respectively, per marriage.

In western Europe, where the birth rates of the Jews are lower, their fecundity is also lower. As will be seen later, this goes hand-in-hand with late marriges, celibacy, etc., among the Jews. In Russia, Poland, Galicia, Algiers, etc., where they are isolated from their christian neighbors and remain unaffected by what is generally known as modern civilized life, they marry earlier, have few celibates and raise large families. The birth rates are as a result quite high, though not as high as among the christians, who are largely engaged in agriculture and marry even earlier, as is the case in Russia and Galicia. Yet it must be remembered that in small cities in eastern Europe it is considered a sin for a Jew to remain unmarried, and an old maid in the family is a disgrace. In western Europe, on the other hand, the Jews are on a high social, economic and intellectual plane. Such people can not afford to marry early, and, after marriage, are not anxious to raise large families, for reasons known to-day in every large city. As a result they bear fewer children. Striking illustrations of this condition are presented in Austria. In Galicia and the Bukowina the rates are high, which goes hand-in-hand with poverty and strict adherence to their religious belief; in Bohemia and Lower Austria the rates are low, corresponding to the social and economic prosperity of the Jews in these provinces with the concomitant late marriages, celibacy, voluntary restriction, etc. In the United States also the newly arriving immigrants have a high fecundity, while the native Jews rarely raise large families.

The number of boys at birth exceeds the number of girls among most European nations. In some countries, like Greece and Roumania, the ratio is 112 to 100 girls, but the average appears to be about 103 and 105 for European countries. It was alleged that among the Jews this excess of male births is more pronounced than among the non-Jewish population. Ignorant, as we are, of the cause of the preponderance of males at birth, this excess, not being influenced by the social and physical environment, was considered a race trait of the Jews.

From statistics of the Russian Pale of Jewish settlement it is seen that there is actually a very large excess of male births among the