Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-11-21
A sIACHINE-BRED BABE.
Curious Way In Which Edith Eleanor
Mclean is Being Raised.
NURTURED IN HOT BOX LIKE A CHICKEN IN AN
INCUBATOR. SHE THRIvEs AND Is LIKELY TO
LIyE-sHE MAY BE BOTH BIG AND HEALTHY.

| NURTURED IN A HOT BOX LIKE A CHICKEN IN AN
| INCUBATOR. SHE THRIvEs AND Is LIKELY TO
LIvE-sHE MAY BE BOTH BIG AND HEALTHY.
| From the New York Sun
Edith Eleanor Mclean was born on Septem-
Der T. 1888, three weeks after her mother
Agnes Mclean, had arrived in this city from
Glasgow. The passage across the Atlantic had
been a rough one. and Agnes had suffered a
great deal from seasickness. She too i'll to
proceed on her journey to Binghamton, in this
state. where friends awaited her. so she went
to the emigrant hospital on Wards island
Edith Eleanor was a very wee bit of humanity.
weighing only two pounds seven ounces. and
giving slight promise of the mature woman
hood that she will now doubtless attain. Her
head was no larger than small apple II was
joined to the body by neck whose circum-
I ference no greater than that of n silver
dollar. If she had been able to stand. little
Edith would have been about twelve inches
high. Her glrth was only eight inches. Once,
to show how small her legs were, one of the
hospital physicians removed ring from his
finger and slipped it over the childs foot and
on her ankle, which it fitted by no means
| snugly. The arms were fragile little things
that looked almost as if touch might break
| them.
The problem of preserving the little spark of
life that glimmered family in this diminutive
body difficult one. Obviously the orai-
nary methods OF caring Tor newborn infants
I must be IHsficlent. The babe was too weak to
take nourishment in the way provided by ma
| tHre. and death must certainly ensue on pro-
lOnged exposure to any ordinary indoor tenn
perature. 1t happened. however. that the
physician-in-chief. DIR. A. NJ Thomas was mt
that moment having an apparatus constructed
| that was especially fitted to the. emergency
When infants are born III a condition Of ex-
haustlon the temperature of their bodies must
be kept high and equable in order to preserve
life. Formerly 1T was the custom to swathe
| the child in some warm material, and sur
round it with bottles of hot water But the
! water cooled rapidly. and as the bottles were
renewed the child was perhaps scalded in one
spot and frozen IN another. When Dr. Thomas
! read IN Philadelphia medical journal last
, summer all account of the success that had at
| attended the use of an apparatus invented bv
| Prof. Tarnier, and used at his celebrated
| pavilion in Paris, he at once determined 10
| construct a similar apparatus in accordance
| with the description published He sent for
! the hospital carpenter and the hospital tin
| smith and set them 20 work. They had nearly
finished their task when DIR. Demng. the ply
| stefan IN charge of the lying-in ward, sent word
| TO DIR. Thomas that little Edith Mclean was in
urgent need of Just sucn treatment rs she
J could receive in the box that the carpenter and
| the tnsmith were makihg. So the carpenter
and the tinsmith hastily put the finishing
| touches on their work
! " looked exactly like refrigerator and in
| some respects was constructed like one
| although ii was intended to accomplish ex-
actly opposite results. Its length and breadth
| were each about three feet, its height four
| feet. The wooden walls were double and the
space between the inner and outer walls was
| filled with sawdust. A horizontal platform di-
| V1ded the interior into upper and lower COM
partments. There were holes in this platform
as well as in the bottom and top of the box, to
/ r1rcyy H. ao,ro la,
a sheet of glass fifteen inches square in the
! wooden lid to permit the attendants TO observe
| the child as 1t lay in the upper compartment
! There was thermometer, too, to show the
! temperature OF the atmosphere the child was
| IN The lower compartment was for part Of
the apparatus that was designed to regulate
| the temperature Of the chiid's body This
! was sheet-iron vessel capable of contain
\ ing fifteen gallons of water. Two horizon
| tai pipes. one near the top. the other near
| the bottom. connected this vessel with an up
right tin cylinder outside the wooden box and
| a third lower down than either of the others
] was connected with faucet. and served to
draw off the water when it no longer fit
for use. There was nothing to obstruct the cir
| culation of the water between the two vessels
! After the sheet-iron tank and the tin cylinder
had been filled with water "a spirit lamp was
placed beneath the cylinder. As the water
| near the bottom of the cylinder was heated it
rose to the top. and cold water came through
A
\ its place. This forced the warm water at the
| top OF the cylinder through the upper pipe and
into the big tank. In this way constant cir
culation was kept up, and once the water was
| heated as hot as the spirit lamp could make it,
| 1t was bound to remain at that temperature
| throughout The air coming in through the
holes IN the bottom of the box passed over the
| warm reservoir, was itself heated. rose through
the holes in the partition to keep the infant
warm, and to be breathed by it, and then to
escape through the opening in the lid. while
fresh warm air took its place. To keep the
child surrounded by an atmosphere ALWAYS
fresh and of a required temperature it was only
| necessary to increase or lessen the heat applied
! to the tin cylinder outside.
So into the upper compartments of this curl
| Gus box, which DIR. Thomas calls matching
| cradle, little Edith Eleanor Mclean went at
the age of thirty-six hours, already 80 ounces
reduced IN weight. There she has since lived
and thrived, establishing the success Of this.
the first experiment of its kind in this country.
! Little Edith weighed just pounds 3j5
ounces when she went into DIR. Thomas box.
! At the end OF six weeks she had gained lust
| 81 ounces, and weighed pounds IL ounces.
In the last two weeks she has increased at the
rate OF ounces a week, SO that the grand total
| OF her weight is now about pounds 10 ounces.
She is a very little body yet, but frightened
and quick OF movement aud able to make
| known her wants III as Vigorous a way as many
| an infant that hasn't been through such try
| ing experiences.
Gradually the temperature of her little house
has been reduced from So. at which it was
originally maintained, until now it is kept at
J IS. In ten days, it is calculated, little Edith
Eleanor Mclean will be prepared to emerge
INTO the world again, and there is nothing save
| the accidents and ailments that anybody might
encounter. to prevent her from reading in the
files Of the Sun twenty years hence about the
extraordinary efforts that were made to pre-
serve her life.
The success of single experiment may not
be conclusive evidence of the permanent util-
| ity of Tarniers continuance, but the doctors
on Wards island are hopeful of equally good
| results IN future tests. While under the older
| and cruder methods it was possible to save
the lives of only twenty-five out of every hun
| bred infants born was little Edith. Prof. Tar
niers experiments have shown that his i'm
proved apparatus will save sixty-six out of
every 100.
| She Bet Her Horse and Lost.
! A MINNEAPOLIS BELLE LOSES on CLEVELAND, BUT
| PROBABLY WINS A HUSBAND.
The ladies of Minneapolis have been betting