The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1866-10-23
SYSTEMATIC CHILD MURDER I'm
-f--' .-F FRANCE - -'E''

| GUESSED at the Academy Of Medicine to which
have already alluded-namely, the frightful
mortality among French children according to
the fashion Of the country put out to uuIse
| Every year 10000 babies are sent ont Of Paris
! under the care of peasant nurses, and of that
number 5000 on an average are returned to
| their mothers, the other 900 having died of
cold, starvation and bad treatment. Since lS46
it has been calculated that 10 the neighborhood
OF Paris alone 300, 900 of these nurslings have
died 10 the hands of their foster mothers. Why
should such barbarous murders be allowed to
depopulate the country? 1t is entirely owing
to the bad management of The bureaur de aoar-
rtces, over which Government has not till now
exercised proper amount Of surveillance. These
officers receive Unfortunately every woman
who applies at them for employment. A fright
ful trade is carried on by spectators of the
lowest class, denominated naeHeurs, who enroll
country women in their pay, convey them to
Paris in carts justly called "purgatories," obtain
Tor them babies whose mothers have applied at
the offices for a nurse for their child, and con-
vey them aud the children back to the country.
The horrors that take place during the journey
to Paris and back in the vehicle Of n,eneur are
OF so startling a nature that one could hardly
believe them to be true were it not for the un-
doubted proofs which have been laid before the
Academy Of Medicine. Thus the country wo-
men make no scruple in exchanging the babies
entrusted to them, and several among them uu-
dertake to nurse two or three children at time
81 have seen," exclaimed Mr. Chevalier, ad-
dressing the Academy, "one woman protesting
to nurse seven infants, and yet she herself had
neither milk nor cow" Fed with bad broth,
exposed to every species of dirt and neglect, the
miserable infant sickeDs aud dies. The nurse,
however, writes to its mother that her baby is
prosperiIg, that it had grown out of its clothes,
and required fresh supply. The mother nat
urally spends her months wages in supplying
her chids wants, and goes on paying its board
for months after it has been lying in the village
cemetery. A considerable number of nurses
come annually to Paris and carry back sup.
ply Of children aud not one has ever been
known to bring a child back to the capital. La
their charge the children simply appear and dis.
appear. DIR Brochard cited in his speech to the
Academy two communes of the Eure ct Loire
Department, where the nurslings invariably die.
1t appears there women among the nurses
whose reputation is we'll known, and, Aorreseo
referenS, these nurses are specially sought for
by certain ill-famed houses Entrusting a new
born infant to one of them is tantamount to 10.
fanticide. DR. Brochard read several copies of
the lying letters written by nurses to the chill
drens parents, describing in pathetic language
the rosy checks and increasing charms oftheir
infants dead weeks before the epistle was indi-
ted. The doctor also gave several curious de-
tails of the annual pilgrimage to st. Crard, 10
the department Of La Perche. St. Criard, be
it remarked, is the real name Of the place, and
not calembourg On given day, late in au-
tumn, it is the custom of the country to bring
every infant in the vicinity before the painted
image Of the saint, there to do him homage.
The said statue happens to be in chapel at
the top of steep hill, exposed to all the winds
of heaven. The country itself is bleak and the
climate peculiarly cold at any time of the year.
Naturally, this long pilgrimage at the worst
season of the year to the top Of great height
proves fatal to all the delicate infants who are
carried in the procession, and the amount Of
deaths from bronchitis which ensue in the course
of the week following is something incredible.
These horrible facts are highly discreditable to
the mayors of the various villages where these
infants are uursed. Naturally, if NJ. le Mairs,
instead OF cultivating his apricots and peaches
and gaining prizes at agricultural shows for his
fat pigs, were to look sharp after the extraordi.
nary number Of little graves in his village Gem.
etery, and insist on medical reports as the cause
thereof being laid before him, infant mortality
would rapidly diminish. Messieurs les Mares
will probably read this opinion FROM the pens Of
their respective projects, expressed in some.
what startling form, as once the French Gov
ernment takes up a subject it does not trife with
it, and undoubtedly possesses the rare gift of
making itself fobeyed.-faris Correspondent Of
the London Star. y 3. >,