Race, hygiene and national efficiency: the eugenics of Wilhelm Schallmayer

obstacles in the way ofJews but Scottish universities and medical schools were more enlightened and tolerant. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, some 60 Jewish students (Scottish as well as from Portugal, the West Indies, and America) obtained a Scottish medical qualification. Persecution of the Jews in eastern Europe at the end of the nineteenth century led to major emigrations, chiefly to the United States and Britain, where a relatively small number settled in Scotland. Scottish tradition encouraged the social advancement of the industrious and ambitious, so that in one generation the transition was made from ghetto penury to Scottish middle-class professional status. One can understand the pride of the immigrant Jewish mama in "My son-the doctor"! The number of Scottish Jewish physicians qualifying was ten times greater than was to be expected from the number of Jews in the population as a whole. Scottish universities and medical schools continued to attract non-Scottish Jews who experienced difficulty in entering medical schools elsewhere. Thus, in the United States during the 1920s and 30s a numerus clausus tacitly operated to curb the entry ofJewish students, many of whom were forced to pursue their medical studies in Scotland, which had the additional advantage of being less costly. Jewish students also came from South Africa. In the 1930s, a large number of German and Austrian physicians and psychiatrists had to flee their native lands. Many experienced problems in being accepted by English medical schools for the purpose of qualifying. Once again, the Scottish medical schools offered a helping hand to these unfortunate individuals in the form of the Scottish Triple Qualification. This book, based on the author's Ph.D. thesis, is recommended as a well-researched and readable study of the interplay of Jews and medicine in Scotland.