News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-11-29
| MACHTNE-BRED BABE,
CURIOUS WAY IN WHICH AN IN
FAINT l. BEING RAISED.
NurturFd in Hot Box Like a Chick
EN- in an Incubator, She Thrivcs
and is Likely to Live.

| IJultu I3lGuIlOT EIClIedn was DOrl or
September 7th, 1883, three weeks aftel
her mother, Ages Mclean, had arrived
II this city from Glasgow. The passage
across the Atlantic had been rough
one, and Agnes had suffered q grea
deal from seasickness. She was too il
to proceed on her journey to Bingham
ton, in this State, where friends awaitel
her; so she went to the Emigrant Hos
pltal on Wards Island Edith Eleanor
was very wee bit of humanity, weigh
lug only two pounds seven ounces, and
giving slight promise of the mature
womanhood that she viii now doubtless
attain. Her head was no larger than G
small apple. 1t was joined to the body
by neck whose circumference was nc
greater than that of silver dollar. II
she had been able to stand, little Edith
would have Geen about twelve inches
high. Her girth was only eight inches.
Once, to show how small her legs were,
one OF the hospital physicians removed
a ring from his finger and slipped it
over the child's 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 light that gimmered family in
this diminutiye body was difficult one.
Obviously, the ordinary methods OF car
ing for newborn infants must be inefii-
clent. The babe was too weak to take
nourishment in the way provided by ma
ture, and death must certainly ensue on
prolonged exposure to any ordinary in
door temperature. 1t happened, however,
that the physician in chief, DIR. A. NJ.
Thomas, was at that moment having an
apparatus constructed that was especially
fitted to the emergency. When infants
are born in a condition of exhaustion,
the temperature of their bodies must be
kept high and eIuable in order to pre-
serve life. Formerly it was the custom
| to swathe the child in some warm mater
ial, and surrounl 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 DIR.
Thomas read in Philadelphia medical
journal last summer an account of the
success that had attended the use of an
apparatus invented by Prof. Tarnier,
and used at his celebrated pavilion in
Paris, he at once determined to CON
struct O similar apparatus in accordance
sent for the hospital carpenter and the
hospital tin smith and set them to work.
They had nearly finished their task when
DIR. Deming, the physician in charge of
the lying-in ward, sent word to DIR.
Thomas that little Edith Mclean was in
urgent need of just such treatment rs
she could receive in the box that the car
penter and the tiuSmith were making.
So the carpenter nj the nSmith hasti =
ly put the finishing touches on their
work.
| 1t looked exactly like refrigerator,
and in some respects was constructed
| like one, although it was intended to ac-
It's fi5h eSaGtlg n af on92sta @9f i iresplts
three feet, its height four feet. The
wooden walls were double, and the space
between the inner AMI outer walls was
filled with sawdust. a horizontal
platform divided the interior into upper
and lower compartments. There were
holes in this platform, as we'll as in the
bottom and top OF the box, to prevent
the free circulation of air. There was a
sheet of glass fifteen inches square in
the wooden lid to permit the attendants
to observe the child as it lay in the up
per impairment. There was q ther-
mometer, too, to show the temperature
lower compartment was for part of the
apparatus that was designed to regulate
the temperature of the child's body.
This was a sheet iron vessel capable of
containing fifteen gallons of water. Two
horizontal pipes, one near the top the
other near the bottom, connected this
vessel with an upright tin cylinder out
side the wooden box, and was connected
m n
the water when it was no longer fit for
use. There was nothing to obstruct the
circulation 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
iron tank to take 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 n constant circu-
lation was kept up, and once the water
was heated as hot as the spirit lamp
conld make it, it 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 in
FAINT warm, and to be breathed by it, and |
then to escape through the openings Ill |
the lid, while fresh warm air took It's
place. To keep the child surrounded by
an atmosphere always fresh and OF re-
quired temperature it was only neces-
sary to increase or lessen the heat ap
piled to the tin cylinder outside.
So into the upper compartment OF
calls Matching CRADLE" little Edith
Eleanor Mclean went at the age of SO
hours, already 1-3 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 two pounds
three and one-half ounces when she
went into DR.. Thomas's box. At the
end of six weeks she had gained just
eight and one-half ounces, and weighed
two pounds twelve ounces. In the last
two weeks she has increased Mt the rate
of seven ounces n week, so that the
grand total of her weight is now about
three pounds ten ounces. She is o very
uGllo bOuy ySIy Dub DIlBub-GyGu anu
quick of movement, and able to make
known her wants in as vigorous Il way
as many an infant that hasn't been
through such trying experiences.
Gradually the temperature of her
little house has been reduced from 80 |
degrees, at which it was originally main
tained, until now it is kept ut IS de- !
grees. In ten days, it is calculated,
little Edith Eleanor Mclean will be
to emerge into the world again, |
and there is nothing, save the accidents
and ailments that anybody might en-
counter, to prevent her from reading in |
the files of The Sun twenty years hence |
about the extraordinary efforts that were |
made to preserve her life.
The success of a single experiment !
may not be conclusive evidence of the
permanent utility of Tarnier's contri-
vance, but the doctors on Wards Island
are hopeful of equally good results i'll
future tests. While under the older
and cruder methods it was possible to
save the lives of only twenty five out OF
every hundred infants born as was little
Edith, Prof. Tarnier's experiments have
shown that his improved apparatus will
save sixty-six out of every hundred. -
Nel0 York San.
Social Anomalv-The fact that people who
'ret on" should be well off,