Smyrna times., 1866-06-13
Child-Murder.

y late number of the Fortujghty Rcciet0
(Engllah paper contains paper Of startling
import, entitled The Massacre of the limo
cents, " written by DR.. Andrew Wynter. We
quote page Of his grim statistics:
When the murder is committed, and the
murderer for time escapes the pursuit Of JUS
tlce, but IS supposed to be still hidden among
us, the agitation of the public mind is very re-
markable, and the desire to cast him out gives
rise to all kinds OF untounded reports and ac-
cuSatlOnS, and great waste of police activity
Possibly if we could lift the veil and really see
the amount Of murder that is going on day by
day undiscovered, our feeling of horror would
become somewhat blunted If the metropolis
was profoundly agitated by the fact that Mr.
Briggs assassin was at large roaming its intri-
cate wilderness, what shall we say to the mine
DIR. Lankestcr has sprung i'll our midst by his
statement, gathered from his professional ex-
pcrcnce as coroner for the Central MiddieseX
District, that there are now living among us In
the metropolis hCclrc HouSdnd lc0ntcn lrh0
hare mHrfcred their MtdntS? This remarka-
ble statement i'll his second annual report, and
the dictum on which it is founded, is the fact
that there are annually one hundred and fifty
children murdered and abandoned in the high
ways and by ways, in the pools, canals and riv-
GrS, within the metropolitan district.
" Dr. Lancaster assumes that where one
murdered little one is brought to light another
is successfully hid forever and this estimate
We should rather think under than over the
mark. This brings the grim total up to three
hundred children whose mothers have put them
foully to death each year. The experience Of
his office leads him to average the age OF the
mothers who commit those imianticidcS at
twenty years and as the expectancy Of life at
i u,,a IaV only 70 1nYIl
tiply three hundred by forty to give the total
Of this ghasty sum-twelvo thousand murder
esScs living in our midst, performing our do
meStlc offices, mlnlStcring to our private wants,
and doing women work about in the town,
with their dreadful secrets locked up in their
breasts! 10 balance this possible over-esti-
mate, We have the probability that the woman
who has murdered one child may have murder
cd another. We know that DIR. Lancaster
mcrciiully shuts his eyes to this suspicion, but
We fear that it is only too likely to be the case,
knowing that i'll crime the French saying,
'Cc II est que le premier pas qul cOut, is only
too applicable.
And it should be remembered that every
year this estimate Of the population ofmurder-
esscs growing up among us is an increasing
one, increasing not only according to the ratio
Of increase in the population, but i'll accordance
! to the pressure upon the means OF existence,
which every year bears more heavily upon the
lowest class from which our unnatural moth
ers are recruited But in working out this
sum we have only dealt with murdered children
who have been known to have lived some little
timetables, many Of whom have sucked the
maternal breast, when, as is we'll known, their
chances of life are greatly augmented by the
lighting up Of maternal love. five dared tt
speculate upon the amount of nfanticide com
mittcd upon children just entering the world
and who are noi,clessly inferred as still born
we should fear to name the annual total tt
which child-murder would instantly spring up