The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-07-19

which brought the nurse. lneTe was 3
turning box" in every hospital, and the
number of these boxes throughout France
| soon reached 257.
The authorities got to be alarmed at the
eyer-increasing contribution of flesh and
| blood brought to their door, and the facil-
| ity afforded mothers to get rid of their Off
| spring was regarded as the cause of this
| infantile hood-tide. Inquests showed that
| certain mothers put their children into the
turning boxes" with the object OF get
| ting them back shortly afterwards as nur-
ses at a monthly allowance, thus giving
| rise to a speculation as immoral as it was
| onerous to the hospital administration.
| Thereupon, the number OF boxes was d.
| minished. A few eminent men protested,
| and among these Lamartine, who, in 1888,
delivered a speech IN which he said that
| the suppression of the boxes was not only
| contrary to law, but led inevitably to in
| fanticide. The administration met this OBJ
| lection by publishing statistical table
| showing that, far from increasing, infanti-
| eide had measurably decreased. Statistics,
| however, may be made to prove anything
| man likes.
| After diminishing the number of
| "boxes" the authorities sought to render
| access to them more difficult. A more
| active surveillance was Instituted. At
| Paris in 1887 the ssbox" was closed in the
| day time, and children were admitted
/
NAMED open at night. This watchful in
| spection rendered the boxes" useless.
| Mothers who were obliged to give their
| names and make known their means of
| livelihood preferred TO forsake their little
i ones under a doorway, or at street cor
ner, rather than to submit to such inquls-
| itorial demands. Thus, then, little by
| little. these "boxes" fell into disuse. Not
one remains today throughout the length
| and breadth of the country. 1t Will be
seen that no law was passed forbidding the
use of the boxes" they gradually disap-
| peared from mere desuetude, so that no
new Law is needed to re-establish them.
Various objections have been made
| against return to this old order of
things Some are serious and deserve con-
sideration. If the nurse inside the hospi-
| tai received the child without even being
able to see who brought it, loafers outside
the walls were on the look out to turn
their knowledge to account for blackmail-
ing purposes. Another objection was that
dead children were occasionally placed in
the turning boxes" A less serious OBJ
lection was the mortality among babes so
brought to the hospital. There is no
denying that the mortality was fright
full, but that came, not from the "box"
itself, but from the want of proper care
received by the infants inside the
walls of each asylum. Not fifteen
years ago the mortality was as great
among females at the Paris Maternite, or
lying-in hospital for poor women, where
i-inety out OF hundred patients sue
cumbed to puerperal fever and other in
fictitious diseases. Yet no one suggested the
suppression of the hospital on that ac-
count. More healthy conditions were
gradually introduced, and the proportion
of deaths is no greater there today than it
is in other institutions of similar class.
A like mortality at one time prevailed
among forsaken children, but hygienic
conditions would have improved all this,
and | am convinced, had the turning
boxes" been retained, that the number of
deaths IN founding hospitals would now
adays be found lower even than that re-
vealed by statistics for children nursed in
certain asylums for special diseases.
The departmental authorities, like the
Assistance Publique in Paris, farm out
"the orphans" and foundlings left at the
charge of the communes. The councils
general who vote the funds, however,
might display little more generosity In
the sum allowed for the sustenance of
these outcasts. For infants in the first
year Of their existence the wages allowed
to the nurse range from $1.20 to So q
month, or from to 1U cents day, for
which woman is supposed to provide
food, lodging and care to an infant.
When the child has completed its first
year the pay is reduced, and from 6 to Ii
years of age no fewer than seventy de-
partments of France pay the nurse only
from 60 cents to $3.50 a month, or 2 to 6
cents day. An additional sum of from
| 50 to S. year is given for the trousseau;
but one department, with wise precau-
ton, supplies a wooden box for a cradle,
which is to serve for coffin if required,
which is not unfrequently the case. The
consequence of this parsimony is that the
women who take in these children, and cam
not find places as wet nurses, live by men,
deity, and the children become Migrants
in their turn. The majority, however,
never reach that stage, for the mortality
among infants brought up under such con-
ditions is frightful. One might suppose
that the design was to get rid of them as
rapidly as possible. Yet regrets are
everywhere heard that the population of
France does not increase.
The departmental and public charities,
reused to action by the proposals recently
made for the establishment of tours in
| the hospitals, as prepared Ill concert with
| the ministry of the interior, a scheme rela-
( tive to the admission, reception and de-
post of children abandoned in the depots
under it's control. In order to justify the
suppression of turning boxes" the de-
partment of public charities pleads the
| facilities that town like Paris affords for
| cIandestine deposits of children born out
side the department of the Seine, and the
expense that would incur without being
| aDie 10 ODtdlu repayment LII suppreSSlng
the "boxes" and establishing the formal
| ity of declaration, the department of
public charities hope to obtain
information enough to enable it to claim
| the cost OF bringing up the child from the
| department where it was born. This hope
| has not been realized; the number of
! children abandoned has not diminished,
and the information afforded has gener-
ally been false. Now the department of
| public charities offers to receive and ad-
nit without declaration and without in
quiry all children brought to it, reserving
| the right of claiming by means of certih-
| Gates of birth voluntarily furnished the
sums due by respective departments. By
this means it IS hoped that the number Of
| inianticides will be decreased.
In moral point of view it is alleged
| that the turning box" incites a mother
| TO abandon her child, while she is encour-
| aged 10 keep 1t by the system of temporary
| assistance This is an error. Girls who
| are about to commit fault lose all fear of
/ the consequences when they know that
| pecuniary assistance awaits them after
| confinement. Instead of nursing her
! child the mother hands it over to some
| old crone, who brings il up by hand,
| shares with the latter whatever money is
/ granted by the Assistance Publioue. and
/ takes q situation as wet nurse, thus reap
| ing double profit.
| There is means of restricting, at least
| in part, this manifest abuse In the de-
! partment of the Loire Infericure, we Weld
| pecunlary or other assistance only under
! certain conditions, always refusing il in
/ the event OF the fault being a second of
| fence, unless il is shown that violence was
| used against the girl or that she is an i'd
| LOT, which frequently happens TO be the