h those of
other races, show a greater tendency to longevity, as the Jewish
expectation of life is at each age markedly greater than that of the
class of people who insure their lives, the average excess being a
little over twenty per cent.

In speaking of the death-rate among children, Dr. Billings makes the
following comparisons: "The low death-rate among the Jews is especially
marked among the children, and this corresponds to European
experience. Thus in Prussia, in 1887, the death-rate of the Jews under
fifteen years of age was 5.63 for 1000, while among the remainder of the
people it was 10.46 per 1000." This result he accounts for partly to the
fact that among the Jews illegitimacy is comparatively rare and to the
high rate of mortality among the illegitimate born, which raises the
average of the other classes.

In regard to the immunity of the race from consumption or tubercular
disease, the statistics of the above Jewish families gives to the Jews
less than one-third of the number of deaths from these diseases than
what occurs among the others as to the male population, and less than
one-fourth as to the female population. These statistics coincide with
the observations of the writer on this part of the subject, and are even
more than corroborated by the French War-Office Reports from Algeria,
where the deaths from consumption among the Christians amount to 1 for
each 9.3 deaths, and among the Jews to 1 in 36.9, while among the
Mohammedans it is only 1 in 40.7 deaths. In Algeria the relative
mortality from all causes is only about three-fifths of that of the
Christian, and the Turk, although seeming to enjoy a greater exemption
from phthisical or tubercular diseases than the Jew, falls below the Jew
in exemption from deaths due to general causes, as his mortality is
one-eighth greater than that of the Jew. Dr. Billings gives us some
interesting food for thought in the course of his article and some more
particularly bearing on the subject of immunity from consumption. He
asks: "Are these differences due to race characteristics, properly
so-called, to original and inherited differences in bodily organization,
or are they, rather, to be attributed to the customs, habits, and modes
of life of the two classes of people?"

Some years ago, Henry I. Bowditch, of Boston, put on foot an extended
system of inquiry in regard to ascertaining the causes or antecedents of
consumption in the State of Massachusetts. In answ