INFANTICIDE, the act or practice of murdering infants, which is abhorrent to modern civilization, was common in ancient times, and now prevails among ninny barbarous nations. It prevailed in Greece and Rome, and (such is the force of custom) found defenders in Plato and Aristotle! • The latter, in his Polities, says the law should forbid the nurturing of the maimed, and where a check to population is required, abortion should be produced before the quickening of the infant. In Sparta, we are informed that the law directed, when a child was born, the father was to carry it to an appointed place, to be inspected by the elders of the community. If they petteived that its limbs were straight, and its look was wholesome, they returned it to its parents to be educated; otherwise, it was thrown into a deep cavern, at the foot of the mountain Taygetus; and it was said this law had a wholesome effect, for it made women with child very careful as to theireating, drinking, and exercise, and hence they proved excellent nurses. In the other Grecian republics, a similar disregard of the life of sickly infants was shown. With regard to the practice among the Romans, little definite information exists, though learned authors discuss it at great length. It seems certain that it lay with the Roman father to say whether his child should be permitted to live or not. The exposition of infants, indeed, was the rule, rather than the exception, in most countries in old times. Among the Norse, the child's life always hung in tiiie balance till the father handed it to the nurse to be reared; if, on account of its being weak, or a daughter, he disapproved of its living, it was exposed to die by wild beasts or the weather. In modern times, the practice is cruelly commonamong certain peoples. Child-Murder prevails to a great extent throughout the whole of the South Sea islands. Among the Fijians, it is or was a system. A recent authority says that in Vanua Levu, in some parts, ' the extent of infanticide reaches nearer two-thirds than a half." Among the Hindus, the practice of destroying children, especially females, prevailed frightfully till it was checked in the time of the marquis of Wellesley's rule. The Rajpdts, it is
said, destroy all female children but the first-born—a peculiar custom, due to its being a point of honor with a Rajpfit to nearly ruin himself in the marriage feast and portion of his daughter, so that he could not afford to have more than one. The Mohammedans were inclined to the same practice, but effected their object chiefly by means of abor thin. In New Holland, the native women think nothing of destroying, by compression, the infant in the womb, to avoid the trouble of rearing it alive. In China, infanticide is supposed to be common, the chief cause being said to be the right of periodically repudiating their wives, which is possessed by Chinamen. Some statistics, *published some time ago in a well-known French paper, indicate the fearful extent to which life is lost through this practice prevailing in so vast a population as that of China. In all the cases above cited, it may be assumed there was no feeling of infanticide being wrong or criminal. In some, it was owing to religious feeling of a perverted kind; in some, to the difficulty of living; hut in ninny, as among the Fijians, it would appear that the mother killed her child often from whim, anger, or indolence.
Modern civilization deals very differently with the subject of infanticide, for one of its maxims is that human life, from its first to its last hour, is sacred, and whoever willfully puts an end to it is a murderer, or a criminal of the same category. Instead of encouraging the destruction of life, modern civilization abounds in every kind of machinery for preserving it, however unsuccessful the attempt. The chief cause whic:i now leads to infanticide is that of shame, which, however, operates only in the cm:e of the child being illegitimate. The parents often incur the risk of committing the crime of murder-, to avoid social disgrace. In order, therefore, to appreciate the of the checks put by the law on the tendency to infanticide, the law of bastardy (q.v.), the practice of instituting foundling hospitals (q.v.), and the kind and degree of punishments attending any attempt, more or less direct, to destroy the child either before or after birth, require to be taken, into account.