But it is time to bring this chapter to a close. It was stated, at
the beginning, that our leading object was to study man in his relations
to what we defined Medical Climate; and we have adhered as
the originals at hand; but some of them, unfortunately, had been loaned out, and did not
reach us in time.
In these essays, the reader will find a mass of very important statistical matter, bearing
on the influence of climates on races, &o. He confirms all our assertions with regard to
the comparative exemption of negroes from malarial diseases, and their greater liability
to typhoid and lung diseases, as well as cholera. He further shows the interesting fact,
that the Jews exhibit a peculiar physiology and pathology; with other singular data, from
which my space and subject only permit me to condense a few vital statistics illustrative
of the present enormous increase of the “ chosen people.”
In 1840, the Jews in Prussia numbered 190,000. They had increased by 50,000 (35 per
cent.) since the census of 1822 The Christians, in the same kingdom, in 1822, were,
11,519,000; and, in 1840,' 14,734,000 (only 18 per cent, of augmentation). During these
eighteen years, births among the Jews exceeded deaths by 29 per 100; and, among the
Christians, only 21. “ The increase of the Jewish population is the more remarkable
because, between 1822 and 1840, some 22,000 Prussian Jews embraced Christianity, whilst
there was no instance wherein a Christian had accepted Judaism.”
In Prussia, “ out of 100,000 individuals, aré reckoned;
CHRISTIAN. JEW ISH .
Marriages ............. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............. 893 719
Births...... . . . . . . ........4001 3546
Deaths, still-born comprised..................... 2961 2161”
the increase being due to excess of births over deaths, among the Jews. Besides, the Jews
are longer lived:—their women do not work in factories, nor labor whilst nursing; so that,
upon 100,000 infants, we find
M CHRISTIANS. JEWS.
Still-born ,,, 3,569 2,524
Died in the first year 17,413 12,935”
Again, the men are rarely sailors, miners, &c. They are sober. They marry young.
Upon 100,000, the Christians bring forth 280 illegitimate children; the Jews only 67. The
proportion of boys is greater among the Israelites. They are subject to cutaneous and
ophthalmic diseases, since the times of Tacitus, and of Moses; but are wonderfully exempt
from heavier scourges—from plague, in 1336; from typhus, in 1505 and 1824; from
intermittent fevers, at Rome, in 1691; from dysentery, at Nimégue, in 1736. Croup is rare
among their children; and, at Posen, where Shlaves have the plica Polonica as 1 in 33, and
Germans as 1 in 65, the Jews only suffer as 1 in 88.
They have more old men and more children than Christians; and their health is everywhere
better—owing, in part, to race preserving itself pure through intermarriage; and
especially to the hygiine enjoined upon them by their religion.
Tacitus, when the Jews were exiled to Sardinia, wrote “ Et si ob gravitatem coeli inte-
mssent, vile damnum!”- a n d again, “ Profana illis omnia qua, apud nos sana; rursum
eoncessa apud illos qua> nobis incesta.” On which Dr. Boudin observes:® “ This saying
of the great historian is at least as true at the physical as at the moral-order point of
view. The more one studies the Jewish race, the more one perceives it subjected to pathological
laws which, m the double aspect of aptitude and immunities, establish a broad
line of demarcation between it and the populations amid which it happens to dwell.”
n Études statistiques sur les lots de la Population, Paris, 1849, pp. 24-6.
closely to the plan as the complex nature of the subject would
permit.,
After the tram of facts adduced, it will hardly be denied that the
historical races—those whose migrations have brought them within
the range of investigation—have their appropriate geographical
ranges, beyond which they cannot go with impunity; and there is
ample ground, for the belief, that the same general law applies
equally to all other races tljat have not yet been subjected to statistical
scrutiny; Nor could any other result have been rationally
looked for, by one who reflects on the wonderful harmony that pervades
the infinite works of Nature; and which is nowhere more
beautifully illustrated, than in. the adaptation of animals and plants
to climate, as . exhibited in the. innumerable Faunas and Floras of
the earth.
Viewed anatomically and zoologically, man is but an animal; and
governed by the same organic laws as other animals. He has more
intelligence than others; combines a moral with his physical nature;
and is more impressible than; others, by surrounding influences!
Although boasting of reason, as the prerogative that distinguishes
him, he is, in many respects, the most unreasonable of all animals.
While civilization, in its progress, represses the gross vices of barbarism,
and brings, the refinements of music, poetry, the fine arts,
together withJbe precepts of a purer religion, it almost balances the
account by luxury, insincerity, political, social, and trading vices,
which follow its march everywhere. If the ancient Britons and
Kelts be fairly balanced against the modern Anglo-Saxons, Yankees,
and Gauls, it will be hard to .say in which scale the most true virtue
will be found. Fashion, in our day, has substituted moral for physical
cruelty. The ancient barbarians plundered, and cut each others’
throats. Civilized man now passes his life in scandal and the tricks
of trade. Look around, now-a-days, at the so-called civilized nations
of the earth, and ask what they have bean doing for the last half
century ? We see man everywhere, not only warring against laws,
voluntarily imposed upon himself for his own good, but bidding
defiance to the laws of G-od, both natural and revealed. He is the
most destructive of all animals. Not satisfied with wantonly destroying,
for amusement, the animals and plants around him, his greatest
glory lies in blowing out the brains of his fellow-man; nay, more, his
chief delight is to destroy his own soul and body by vice and luxury.
Nor dops his rebellious and restless spirit suffer him to be content
with a limited field of action: he forsakes the land of his birth, with
lts -associations, and all the comforts which earth can give, to
colonize foreign lands—where he knows full well that a thousand