The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-04-26

of baby-farming How this can be done,
however is not very obvious. The reviewer
suggests that the registration of every birth
should be compulsory by law, as in Scotland
and Ireland, and this whether the infant be
born pfematurely or at full period, alive or
dead; that the registration of death should be
accompanied by certificate from duly
qualified practitioner, stating that he has had
proper opportunities for forming an opinion
and specifying the cause of the death; aud
''that some statutory check should be
placed upon the practice so common among
undertakers of dsposing surreptitiously of
the bodies of infants dying unbaptized or un-
registered, in the collins of other persons, or
otherwise" He suggets, too, that baby farms
should be licensed aud placed under the eye
of iudicious medical officer; and that
'houses to which females moving in the
better classes of society who so far forget
themselves as to become pregnant may retire
during the period of their confinement"
should be liable to a similar supervision. Mr..
Acton also, although he justly charaoterizes
the trade of baby-farming as infamous, would
have it publicly licensed aud the houses open
to inspection by properly appointed officers.
In the present state of English feeling about
such matters plan like this is impracticable.
We cannot discriminate between a law which
recognizes the existence of an evil for the
purpose of diminishing it, and a law which
sanctions what all good men confess to be
abomination.
Between England and France there is a
wide difference of opinion about many ques-
tions affecting public morality. Nevertheless
it may be well worth inquiring how our
neighboTs act with regard to this question;
and an article in the ISeUUe deS DeuG M0RdeS
for March 10 will give us some of the infor-
nation we require In that country, as in
our own, the excessive mortality of infants
has excited the attention of physicians and of
social economists, and NJ. Leon le Fort attri-
butes it in large measure to the 5B6uStrte
HOu97fc5ere which is carried on in some of the
country districts. This trade is not conducted
secretly, as with us, but is subject to super
vision and control. The nurses engaged at
the grand bureau have a small SUN secured
to them in case the parents fail to pay for the
support of their children, and the result is
that in a vast number of cases the parents
are 2efaulters, the income of the nurses is
diminished, and of course the children suffer
in consequence. Moreover, the organization,
we are told, does not give the advantages that
might be expected from it, and the nurses are
frequently able to neglect their infant charges
without fear of discovery. In the thirteen
departments around Paris where baby Pari-
sisns are placed out to nurse, the infant NOR
tality is SO much greater than elsewhere that
according to M. Leon le Fort, there can be
no doubt that it is due to the industrSe n0ur-
7iciere. A year or two ago it was stated 1--WE
believe in the Medical Times and Gazette
that of SO, 900 infants born annually in Paris
$4,000 are sent into the country to be nursed
NJ LIE Fort, however, gives a total of $4,000,
, and remarks that it is impossible to calculate
the mortality precisely, since the nurses who
undertake he management of these infants
are not all under like control