than one per cent, of the total Jewish admissions. Notwithstanding the fact that the Jews are thus almost entirely uninfluenced by the greatest of the acquired or accidental causes of insanity, their total number of insane does not fall to the level of the average for the general population. Thus out of 1,762 admissions to the Manhattan State Hospital for 1910-11, there were 455 Jews; that is to say, they made 25.9 per cent, of the total admissions. This is nine tenths of one per cent, more than their usually estimated relation to the general population of the community from which they were recruited.
Reliable data from foreign countries serves to show that, notwithstanding his freedom from alcohol, the Jew still contributes more than his share to the general insane population. Thus in Germany for the period 1890-1902 there were to the 100,000 of population, an annual average number of 67 insane and feeble-minded Jews as against 49 of the non-Jewish population. The congenital idiocies and congenital imbecilities showed an especial disproportion against the Jews, they having 4.51 as compared to 2.75 among the non-Jews.[1] That the proportion of the constitutionally inferior is especially large is shown by a reference to the subjoined table, which is taken from De Fursac's and Rosanoffs latest work on psychiatry. It will be noted that notwithstanding the fact that they have practically none of the psychoses which are due to alcohol, the Jews come second in point of number of admissions.
In this connection the percentage of the Irish admitted for alcoholic
Total | Mental Defectives | Per 100,000 | |
Finnish | 9,779 | 0 | 0 |
Russian | 18,721 | 0 | 0 |
Spanish | 8,068 | 0 | 0 |
Magyar | 19,966 | 1 | 5 |
Greek | 37,021 | 2 | 6 |
Dutch and Flemish | 13,862 | 1 | 8 |
Scandinavian | 45,859 | 4 | 9 |
Bohemian (Czech) | 9,223 | 1 | 11 |
Ruthenian | 17,724 | 2 | 11 |
Pole | 71,446 | 9 | 12 |
Slovak | 21,415 | 3 | 15 |
Italian (North) | 30,312 | 5 | 16 |
Croatian, Slovenian | 982 | 2 | 22 |
Italian (South) | 159,638 | 36 | 23 |
English | 57,258 | 13 | 23 |
German | 66,471 | 15 | 23 |
Scotch | 25,625 | 6 | 23 |
Irish | 40,246 | 11 | 27 |
Hebrew | 91,223 | 26 | 28 |
French | 18,132 | 6 | 32 |
- ↑ Maurice Fishberg, "The Jews: A Study of Race and Environment."