Jacobs shows that this abundance of Jewish men of genius of the first
order is allied with a deficiency in men of the second order of
intellect. He explains the superiority by the higher level of education
among the Jews, their devotion to family life, the almost complete
absence of priests and dogmas, the facilities which the study of Hebrew
offers for investigations in philosophy and for that kind of music which
forms part of their religious ceremonies. It is difficult, however, to
find a relationship between this rhythmical caterwauling and the sublime
notes of Meyerbeer and Mendelssohn; and Jews possess more than enough of
priests and dogmas. I would add that if the Jews have not yet produced
men like Newton, Darwin, and Michelangelo, it is because they have not
yet accomplished their ethnic evolution, as they show by the obstinacy
with which they cling to their ancient beliefs.
It is strange that among the factors of Jewish superiority in genius
Jacobs does not mention the neurotic tendency, the existence of which,
as we shall see, he has himself shown. This would also well explain the
deficiency of Jews in intellect of medium quality in which the morbid
element is always less marked.
_Insanity._--It is curious to note that the Jewish elements in the
population furnish four and even six times as many lunatics as the rest
of the population. Jacobs, who, as we have seen, does not suspect the
correlation between genius and insanity, gives a remarkable proof of it
by pointing out that while Englishmen have 3,050 per million afflicted
with mental disease, Scotchmen have 3,400, and Jews 3,900, the
proportion of insanity in the three races being related to the
proportion of genius. And while, according to Galton, there are 256,000
of the mediocre class among a million Englishmen, Jacobs reckons that
there are only 239,000 among Scotchmen, and 222,000 among Jews.
Servi found 1 lunatic to 391 Jews in Italy, nearly four times as many as
among Catholics.[248] This fact has been made still clearer by
Verga[249] who in 1870 found the proportions of lunatics among Catholics
to be 1 in 1775, as against 1 in 384 among Jews. Mayr[250] (in 1871)
gives the proportion of lunatics in Germany as follows:--
Per 10,000 Christians. Per 10,000 Jews.
Prussia 8.7 14.1
Bavaria 9.8 25.2
All Germany 8.6 16.1
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