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

greater, we have also to examine whether
such q drawback is not largely compen-
stated by the number of children saved.
The number of infanticides has steadily
increased since the suppression OF the
turning boxes;' but there is one kind
of infantile mortality which augments
in yet more formidable proportions:
Who knows how many cases
of infanticide Turk behind apparently
natural deaths? Want of care and the
slightest negligence may In hail minute
convert child born yiable into little
corpse almost at the moment of its birth.
1t is further objected that the turning
boxes" would receive not only illegitimate
children, but those of poor families who
are tempted to get rid of their legitimate
offspring through its secret agency. This
also is possible; but, even then, prefer to
see the child saved TO the country through
the turning box" rather than have it
run the double risk of losing its life through
abortive practices before, and neglectful
practices after its birth, to which parents
capable of abandoning their offspring have
too often recourse. A thousand children
year might thus be rescued throughout
France.
What is known as the "Roussel law
which organized the succour afforded I'M
married women with offspring-is not only
a theoretical but also practical law, and
/ am ready to admit that it has afforded
important results. The chief objection to
1t Is that 1t has been unnecessarily gener-
allied. 1t works very well in small locali-
ties where the mother has vigilant eye
over the nurse, often her next door neigh
Dor, to whom she has confided her babe.
In that case official surveillance is not
needed. But in large cities the Roussel
law has given rise to a special industry,
that of child nurses who are too often
.fdiSeuses DANCES, or child killers. There Is,
as 1t were, tacit understanding between
the mother, the city, and nurse whose
neglect, carefully prepared pap and Sleep
ing draught soon do their work of destruc-
ton and quietly add to the annual num-
Der of infanticides
The law-giver has, it is true, taken the
wise precaution to establish sort of sur
vigilance; but the system is so complicated
and costly that it is next to impractical.
Thus, not only the justices of the peace
and the doctors charge extra fees for their
displacement In visits to the nurse, but
even the secretary of the Marie, or the
schoolmaster who registers the child, d
entitled to % cents per registration, and
what is the upshot of all this? The sur
Vigilance is anything but what it should
be, and the children at present succored
by the states, are decimated by mortality
which has been increasing for the last half
century
Ny amendment has in view an expert
ment, and only calls for the re-establish-
ment of turning boxes in large cities.
When girl has gone astray in any small
locality, soon as the consequences are
about to become manifest, she leaves the
place for some large town where she may
be confined on the quiet On the con-
tlary, girl who stays in her village and
does not seek to hide her fault evidently
intends to bring up her child. In this
latter case the turning box" is of no use.
Moreover, if these boxes were multiplied
all over the country people would not fail
to exclaim against the institution as an en-
couragement to debauchery.
MARQUIS DE LA FERRoNAYs,
Member of the Chamber of Deputies.