Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1894-08-31
SAVED BY AN INCUBATOR
NATURES SUBSTITUTE DOING
WONDERS FOR INFANTS.
How the Lives of Many Babies Have
Been Saved in New York Hospi-
tals-A Clever Device.

NJ proud mother of some
LII great man of the future
will say of her son. For
the baby incubator is success and
has come to stay. The doctors de-
clare that incubators, have already
been the means of saving the lives of
100 infants in New York, says cor
respondent of the ST. Louis Post-Des-
patch. In fact, the new born baby,
who, under the old-fashioned methods,
has no chance of living, now, if put in
an incubator, stands about an even
chance of becoming a healthy, crow
ing youngster. Baby incubators are
now in use in two hospitals in the city,
the Post Graduate Hospital and the
Maternity Hospital of the Women's
Medical College.
A bright young woman, with a sweet
face and modest ways, is in charge of
the babies at the Maternity Hospital.
There is n room in the third story
there, room with a great window
which lets in plenty of light and over
looks the tops of the trees in Stuyve-
SAINT Park. Around the walls are four
cribs of from ten to twelve feet in
length. In two of these there were
three little Jumps.
You discover that these Jumps are
alive and breathing. They are very
small and delicate, and dainty and
pink. They are babies sure enough
any man could tell that, but nobody
would ever think they are incubator
raised.
The incubator is used only for the
prematurely born babies and for
babies which are so weak that the wise
young women doctors are pretty sure
that they will die if left in the open
air. Strangely enough, the incubator
is shaped something like coffin,
while its particular aim is to keep
babies out Of coffins. There are two
kinds of baby incubators and they
differ somewhat in construction.
The moment baby for the in
cubator arrives at the Maternity
Hospital the white capped nurses and
the doctors gather about the little
wooden box, which rests upon stand
some three or four feet high. Baby
is swathed very carefully in warm
clothes, and is then weighed, clothes
and all, before he is laid inside, and
the glass cover isplaced over him.
Underneath the board upon which
| the little mite rests are three bottles
that are kept con stantly full of hot
water The air passing in from below
flows over these and through an open
ing in the board into the chamber
where the infant is. A thermometer
keeps the attendant continually in
| formed as to the temperature, and
| little aluminium thermometer in the
small chimney through which the air
escapes and which furnishes the
draught that keeps the baby supplied
with fresh air, always indicates
whether or not the circulation of air
is good.
The weight is a very imp ortant
matter. Our baby IN the incubator
is weighed every day. A healthy baby
should show slight diurnal increase
in weight, and if the doctors find that
the diminutive patient is not growing
heavier, they seek remedies for his
indisposition.
babies ward of the new building of
the Post Graduate Hospital is a great
Improvement on that at the Maternity
Hospital, although it lacks the senti-
mental surroundings of the one in
charge of the young women doctors.
In this improved affair the patient
will not have to be once lifted from
his snug nest from the time he is
placed inside until he becomes strong
enough to be removed with safety.
The incubator is set upon bicycle
wheels, SO it may be moved about
whenever desired. The fresh air is
heated by passing between two stratas
of hot water, rises up both at the head
and the feet of the mattress, and is
kept in motion by an aluminium fan
run by clockwork, thus preventing
the possibility of the little patients
suffering for want of air. There is
also tube for the supply of oxygen,
liberal quantities of which are good
for babies who are hanging on to life
by the merest thread, and it is be-
lieved this improvement will save
great many lives that would have been
lost in the old incubator.
BY means of a clever mechanical de-
vice, the weight of the body is always
registered, so that the physician may
discover the slightest variation at any
time. OF course the incubator must
be opened to feed the baby its artifi-
cial food, but by means of a deft slid
ing of the covers the entrance of any
cold air from the outside is prevented.
The temperature of the inside of the
incubator is kept as near ninety eight
degrees as possible.