FOUNDLING HOSPITALS, establishments in which children that have been abandoned by their patents and found by others, are nurtured at the public expense. Amongst the ancient nations, these institutions were not unknown, though as the law usually placed the power of life and death in the hands of the father, and permitted him to sell his children into slavery, it is to be feared that infanticide, as among eastern nations at the present day, was the usual mode of solving the difficulty which F. H. are intended to meet. Desertion, however, and exposure as less atrocious, were still more frequent crimes; and to meet these, the reception and education of foundlings were enjoined on private persons, to whom they were assigned in property. When this means of support failed, they were protected by the state. The Egyptians and Thebans are praised by the 61assical historians for discouraging the exposure of infants. The practice of exposing infants probably prevailed even amongst the Germanic nations previous to the introduc tion of Christianity; and though Tacitus says that infanticide was forbidden, in Iceland, in particular, it is said to have reached a fearful height. From the period at which Christianity became the state religion of the Roman empire, a sensible change in the spirit of legislation on the subjects both of infanticide and exposure is apparent; and though the latter is spoken of by Gibbon as one of the most stubborn remnants of heath endom, it gradually gave way, and the Christian church, at a very early period, lent its encouragement to the establishment of F. II. So early as the 6th c., a species of found ling hospital is said to have existed at Treves. The bishop permitted the children to be deposited in a marble basin which stood before the cathedral, and gave them in charge to members of the church. But the first well-authenticated one is that of Milan, estab lished iu 787, probably in obedience to the 70th article of the council of Nice, which enjoined that a house should be established in each town for the reception of children abandoned by their parents. It is probable, however, that F. H. existed pretty exten sively at an earlier period, as mention is made of them in the capitularies of the Frank ish kings. In 1070, a foundling hospital was established in Montpellier; in 1200, in Eimbeek; in 1212, in Rome; in Florence, in 1317; in Ntirnberg, in 1331; in Paris, in 1362;- in Vienna, in 1380. In France, the utility of these establishments, which were the special labor of Vincent de Paul (q.v.), was early called in question; and letters patent of Charles VII., in 1445, affirmed that "many persons would make less difficillty in abandoning themselves to sin when they saw that they were not to have the charge of the upbringing of their infants." In Germany, the system of F. H. was soon aban doned, the duty of rearing the children being, as in England, imposed by law, first on the parents, then on more distant relatives, whom failing, on the parish, and last of all, on the state. The reproach made by Roman Catholic countries against this more natural arrangement—that it tends to promote infanticide—is said to have been in no degree established by statistical investigations. The revolutionary government of France not only adopted the system of F. H., as it had been handed down to it, but in 1790 declared all children found to be children of the state (enfants de la patrie). Nay, as a still further premium on immorality, it declared that every girl who should declare her pregnancy should receive a premium of 120 francs! The imperial government, in 1811, abolished this insane enactment, but continued and further systematized the arrangement by which the F. H. had become government establishments, and the children, children of the stew. This state of things remained unaltered till recently, and every considerable town had its foundling hospital and turning-wheel. The expense of rearing a child to the age of twelve in the hospital at Paris was computed at 952 francs 42 centimes, or a trifle less than S',40. The moment that the child was received it was weighed, and if its weight was less than six pounds, it was considered that its chance to live was very small. It was then inscribed in a register, and a formal statement was drawn up of any name which had been given along with it, or of any particular mark which it bore either on its person or otherwise; of the hour at which it was deposited, its sex, and its dress. It
was then inspected by a medical man, and handed over to the nurses. At Paris, each child was committed to a special nurse, many of whom were retained on the premises, and paid 40 centimes a day. Other nurses were brought in from the country in carriages kept by the hospital, which returned conveying the children along with their new mothers. The children thus boarded out were inspected twice a year by local medical men appointed for the purpose. The parents and relations were permitted to reclaim them at any period, or they might be legally adopted by any French citizen in a condi tion to maintain them. A large proportion of the children were not proper foundlings, but orphans and infants abandoned by parents unable or unwilling to bear the expense of their maintenance; and the mothers were known in many instances by offering them selves as nurses to get -Charge cf their own infant The question of-the propriety of encouraging secrecy by the use of the turning-box, or of causing the parents openly to deposit the children in the hands of an officer, was long discussed with much keenness in Franey. The argument in favor of the turning-box was that by which the whole institution was defended, viz., that it tended to discourage infanticide. But even if that were unquestionable, there were many other obvious considerations to be taken into account, and these have preponderated. An official report by M. Gasparin, in 18:37, showed that the number of children exposed had increased between 1811 and 1833, from 70,000 to 130,000; that the infant mortality was appalling; and that those who survived, ushered into the world without friends or means, constituted a large proportion of the thieves and prostitutes of the country. Within the last thirty years the whole system has been greatly modified, the changes being in the direction recommended in M. Gas parin's report. A large number of hospitals have been suppressed. The turning-box has been abolished, or, where retained, placed under such restrictions as make the aban donment public; the officers of the hospital, on receiving the infants, make full inquiry into the position and residence of the mother The new-born infants have a separate department assigned them, and assistance is given at their own dwellings to mothers in circumstances to require it. The very name of "enfans trouves" has been exchanged for "enfans assistes." The result has been a vast diminution of the number' of exposures, and a great saving of expense to the and lessening of mortality among the infants. The present number of F. H. in France is believed to be about 130. In Spain they number about 70. Portugal, Belgium, Austria, and Norway possess F. H.; and those of Moscow and St. Petersburg are among the largest in the world.
The foundling hospital in London was established by capt. Thomas Comm, a benev olent sailor, in 1739, as "an hospital for exposed and deserted children." The ground in Guildford street was purchased from the earl of Salisbury for £7,000. and the archi tect of the hospital was Theodore Jacobson. The system of F. II. never having been approved in England, the London hospital was changed in 1760 to what it now is—viz., an hospital for poor illegitimate children whose mothers are known. The committee, previous to admitting the child, must be satisfied of the previous good character and present necessity of the mother. The qualification for a governor is a donation of zf'..50. The great Handel was one of the chief benefactors of the hospital. He endowed it with a magnificent organ, and frequently performed his oratorio of the Messiah in the chapel, which is still celebrated for its music. Though every attention is paid to the health and comfort of the children at the foundling—to such an extent, indeed, as very often to unfit them for the hardships which many of them must encounter in after-life—we have been informed by the physician that they do not attain to the height of average English men and women. F. H. exist in Mexico, and in almost all the states of South America; in the United States there are few, and these mainly supported by private charity.