Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1877-10-16
DRUGGING INFANTS.
Frighttul Practices Among Lower
orders OF society.

orders OF society.
Nalhville American, 18th. fnft
DR.. j. d, Plunkett, at the meet
ing of the board of health, last eve
ming, called attention to the i'm
portance Of the appointment of
physicians to the Office of coroner.
Some steps, he said, ought to be
taken to stop the murder of infants,
a crime which had become alarm
ingly frequent among the lower
classes of society. 1t was no un.
common thing to read accounts, in
the papers, of the finding of dead
infant bodies and the verdict of
juries seemed to have grown into
the stereotyped phrase, "Death
from some unknown cause" 1t
was not often that physician was
summoned to investigate the cause.
all the detailed circumstances were
not brought out. In fact, tn he
jury viewed the dead body and
simply came to the conclusion
that it was very dead and that was
the end of it. Many a child mur-
der was committed the facts Of
which never found its way into the
columns of the newspaper. These
murders were produced by a slow
process. The infant was so con-
Stantly drugged that it had at last
to succumb to cruel fate. This was
purposely done that the unexpe-
rienced eye might not detect the
cause which brought about its pre-
mature death. While some might
be driven to the murder of their
offspring by poverty; it was more
often the case that they were killed
to avoid the trouble of raising in
fants to an age at which they might,
to a certain extent, take care of
themselves. Such things ought not
to exist in an enlightened commu-
nifty, but how was it to be checked
except through a physician as COR
oner. A reform in this direction
would prove very wholesome and
have a tendency to suppress crime.
Upon the adjournment of the
board of health a reporter asked
DR.. Plunkett to what particular
class of people this slaughter of in
fants was attributable.
Mostly to the lower classes of
the colored race. They do not care
to have the trouble Of raising chill
dren. If they do not destroy them
at the birth, it is almost certain TO
come afterward, but by such slow,
cruel process as will be most likely
to make the death seem to have
been produced by natural causes.
Z" Do you attribute many infalati-
dides to white people?"
" Yes, but not SO many as to the
class of whom | have just spoken"
"Do you know of any instance
where a white mother dosed her
child with slow poison ?"
(" Yes, | saw very striking illus
tration Of this not long since. L
was passing by a tenant house one
day when was attracted to an
infant in a crib. 1t tlooked very old
and its features were so haggard
that l shuddered TO look upon it.
and yet l was forcibly attracted to-
ward it by the oddneSs of its ap-
pearance. 1t was only fourteen
months old, though it appeared to
have passed through five hundred
years. what is the matter with
this child p l asked of the mother"
Nothing, sir" she said.
"But, indeed, there is, madam,
and there is no Disgusting the fact"
You are very much mistaken,
sir"
81 am a physician, and | know
exactly, from its appearance, what
is the matter with it,"
You are ?" queried the woman,
with a startled look, as the tears
gushed from her eyes and ran down