d Transylvania, to have been committed
by rather less than one of the Jewish race to four of the members of the
mixed races of the Christian population. Different causes have been
assigned for this higher vitality of the Jewish race, and it were indeed
wise to seek for the causes, since that race which presents the
strongest vitality, the greatest increase of life, and the longest
resistance to death must in course of time become, under the influences
of civilization, dominant. We see this truth, indeed, actually
exemplified in the Jews; for no other known race has ever endured so
much or resisted so much. Persecuted, oppressed by every imaginable form
of tyranny, they have held together and lived, carrying on intact their
customs, their beliefs, their faith, for centuries, until, set free at
last, they flourish as if endowed with new force. They rule more
potently than ever, far more potently than when Solomon in all his glory
reigned in Jerusalem. They rule, and neither fight nor waste."[68]

Richardson attributes the great benefits enjoyed in this regard by the
Jewish race to the soberness of their lives. This position is, however,
not altogether tenable, if by that we mean abstemiousness; they are
extremely temperate, but not abstemious. Tissot, Cornaro, Lessius,
Hufeland, Humphry, Sir Henry Thompson, as well as the older Greek and
Roman authorities, all are agreed that an abstemious life is the one
that is most conducive to long life. There is no race that is more
proverbial for their good cheer and indulgence in the good things of the
table than the Jewish; no race enjoys feasting any more than they, and
from childhood they are accustomed to a generous and nutritious diet, as
well as to their share of the wines with which their tables are
supplied. Their greater thrift and application to business, their habits
of economy and carefulness in business affairs enable them to better
supply their tables. In California there is no class that lives better
or whose tables are supplied so well either as to quality or quantity as
those of the Jews, and yet no class is more exempt than they from the
class of diseases that originate in too good living. As before remarked,
in relation to the poor of that faith, who are unable to keep a servant,
and who live in a combination of shop and home in the most unhygienic
condition, disregarding ventilation and every other sanitary needs, but
who, nevertheless, escape the evil results th