Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 69.djvu/270

266 among the Jews in Warsaw, and low among the Jews in Prussia, just as it is among the christians in these countries. In other words, in eastern Europe, where childbirth is attended to by ignorant midwives, the proportion of stillbirths is larger than in western Europe, where either physicians or trained midwives are in attendance. Stillbirths are, after all, greatly dependent on economic conditions. They are very frequently met with among people in the lowest social and economic strata, and rare among the prosperous.

Illegitimacy has often been taken as an index of the morality of a community. While it may be a true index in many countries, yet in some countries, owing to special marriage laws, an excessive proportion of illegitimate births is not necessarily an indication of vice. A good illustration is presented in Austria. There a child is considered illegitimate in case the parents have not registered their marriage with the civil authorities. It appears that the Jews in Galicia and Bukowina very often neglect to register their marriages and consider their religious ceremony as sufficient. As a result of this special law, it is found that while nowhere else is the proportion of illegitimate births among the Jews over four per cent., it reaches in Austria 61.37 per cent. In Storozynee the records even show 99.61 per cent, of illegitimate births among the Jews, which is manifestly absurd.

It is seen from the above figures that about seven illegitimate children are born to christians in Bavaria to one to Jews; in Amsterdam it is about three to one, in Warsaw seven to one, in Prussia and Budapest two to one, and in Russia five to one. The high percentage in Austria and in part of Budapest has already been explained above as being of no significance.