FOUNDLING HOSPITALS (ante) are intended to save children from death by exposure, and it is therefore difficult to describe them properly apart from tlle general subject of infanticide, a practice extremely common among nearly all ancient nations. It may still be studied in such horrible institutions of savage life as the Areoi of the Society islands, or the Meebra of New South Wales; and it may be found in the greatest variety of form among the tribes of Hindustan. The motives which suggested the practice were sometimes superstitious: inure often extremely practical. The natives of Gujarat said to maj. Walker, - pay our daughters' marriage portions and they shall live." The feeling here was one of social dignity, mixed with the strong contempt which many savages express for the unmarried state. But in most eases, children were killed simply because the parents, having no realized wealth, did not expect to be able to clothe and feed them. This is especially seen in the frequent killing of female chil dren and those who are sick and deformed. In some places, the practice has been con fined to the children of concubines, of stranger fathers, or of mothers dying from sick ness. In the earliest society, the right to kill belonged to the father, sometimes assisted by a person skilled in omens, or by a council of friends. But the usage soon hardened into a binding custom or into express laws. Thus, in the exogamous communities, girls were clearly a source, not of weakness only, but also of danger. At a much later period, the number of a family, or of the daughters, was often fixed by law, and both Lycurgus and the Roman decemvirs directed the slaughter of deformed children. This violence to the domestic affections was probably made easier by the notion, which appears in Greek science and in Roman law, that neither the fetus nor the newly born child is entitled to the privilege of humanity. The Greek pastoral of Longus and the Self-Tor mentbr of Terence, show still better than the text of laws how the conscience of a civilized society reconciled itself to such cruelties. And the sober reasoning of Aris totle goes even beyond the custom of his time. Pliny the elder defends infanticide as a necessary check .on population, and Quintilian and Seneca bear witness to the frightful mortality among children exposed, and the systematic mutilation of those who survive. The legislation of Constantine did not go beyond a declaration that the killing of a son was equal to parricide; but the famous law of Valentinian, Valens. and Gratian pun ished exposure by the loss of the patria i)oiestas,and secured the rightsof the foster-father.
Finally, Justinian declared that the foundling should no longer be the slave of the foster father, but should' be free. This, however, did not affect Western Europe, where social disorder and the recurrence of famine led to extensive sales of children. Against this evil, which was noticed by several councils, the church provided a rough system of relief, children being deposited in marble shells at the church doors, and tended first by male nurses and then by the foster-parents. Nothing is known of the brephotrophia,
which are said to have existed in the eastern empire at this time, nor of the public tables which particular emperors are said to have provided for the support of children. The earlier traditions of a hospital at the Cynosarges in Athens, and at the Columua Lactria in the vegetable market at Rome are disputed. It was in the 7th or 8th c. that institutions for foundlings were definitely established in such towns as Treves, and Montpellier. In the 15th c., Garcias, archbishop of Valentia, was a conspicuous figure in this charitable work; but his fame is entirely eclipsed by that of St. Vincent de Paul, who in the reign of Louis XIII., with the help of the countess of Joigny, Mine. le Gras, and other religious ladies, rescued the foundlings of Paris from the horrors of • a primitive institution named La Couche, and ultimately obtained from Louis XIV. the use of the Bicetre for their accommodation. Letters patent were granted to the Paris hospital in 1670. The Hotel-Dieu was the next in importance. No provision, however, was made outside of the great towns; the asylums in the cities were overcrowded and administered with laxity; and in 1784, Necker prophesied that the state would yet be seriously embarrassed by this increasing evil. From 1452 to 1789, the law had imposed on the seigneurs de haul justice the duty of succoring children found deserted on their territories. The first constitutions of the revolution undertook as a state debt the sup port of every foundling. For a time premiums were given to the mothers of illegiti mate children, the " children of the nation." At the prpsent time,. all the countries of Europe, except Scotland, are provided with foundling hospitals, and there are several such institutions in China. They are also frequent in various countries—in America,in Mexico, Brazil, and Canada. The foundling hospital of the sisters of charity, in New York city, was established in 1869, the city giving • the site and $100,000 towards its foundation. It began operations in Oct., 1869, and in four years received 5,076 infants, of whom 2,037 died. A box was placed every night for the receipt of children, and in the first month 29 infants were taken in, many of them less than three hours old. With a single exception, they were accompanied with memoranda giving the name and date of birth. In the same institution, accommodations are afforded for indigent mothers having young infants. Another institution of the kind is the infants' hospital, under the care of the city. Still another is the nursery and child's hospital, founded in 1854; to which may be added the New York infant asylum. Within the past ten years great interest has been manifested in the protection and health not only of the foundlings, but of other children whose parents or guardian s neglect or are unable to support them: There is a society for the prevention of cruelty to children, organized in 1875, which has done much good work; and there are homes and seaside sanitariums for the care of the indigent and the sick. [Condensed from Encyc. Brit., 9th ed.]