Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 70.djvu/40

36 according to the age of the individual whether he is less than or over fifteen years old, we find that the mortality of the young is less than one half that of the christians. In 1904 48.89 per cent, of all the deaths among christians in that country occurred in individuals less than fifteen years of age, while among the Jews only 19.78 per cent, of all deaths were in persons of these ages. In Berlin it was in 1904, christians 42.05 and Jews 20.28, also less than one half among the Jews. In Amsterdam the deaths recorded in 1900 were distributed by ages as follows:

Here also the mortality during infancy and childhood was smaller among the Jews than among the christians; between the ages of 13 to 64 it was equal among both classes, while among the old it was more frequent among the Jews. The same condition has been found in Hungary, where the mortality of children below seven years of age is 49.5 per cent, among the christian population, and only 43.69 per cent, among the Jews.

Objections may be raised against this method of calculating the mortality of children, because it must first be ascertained whether the distribution of the population by age classes is the same in both groups. This is particularly the case with the Jews, whose birth rates are lower than those of christians. A smaller number of births means a smaller number of infants, and consequently a smaller number of deaths. The best way to compare the mortality of Jews and christians is to calculate the proportion of deaths per 1,000 persons at each age period, i. e., to ascertain the death rates at each age in both classes, Jews and christians. But this is difficult because there are no available data published in census reports. The exact infantile mortality is, however, easily ascertained by finding the ratio of deaths of infants below one year old to the number of births in a given year (excluding still-births). In the following table are given some figures about the infant mortality in some European countries:

Here also a lower infant mortality is seen among the Jews. Of 1,000 Jewish children born among the Jews in Amsterdam during 1900,