The Lehi banner. [volume] (Lehi, Utah) 1891-1917, 1895-12-12
SAVED BY 1NCUBATOBs.
Tho Lives of Infants Preserved
by Artificial Means.


doctors declare that incubators have
already been the means OF saving the
livca of one hundred infants IN New
York In fact, the newborn baby who
under old-fashioncd methods has no
chance of living, now, II put into AZ in
cubator, stands about an even chance
OF becoming healthy, growing young
stcr. Baby incubators are now in use
in two hospitals in the city.
A cOzicr place for q baby could not
be imagined, says the New York World.
Here the embryo citizens have every
opportunity tho world affords TO hold
on to life and to grow healthy and
strong, while in the tencmclts where
their parents live the lives of the frail
little things would have been snuffed
out in less than day after they first
saw the light.
The incubator il used only for pre-
maturely-born babies and for babies
which are so weak that the wise young
woman doctors arc pretty sure they
will die II left In the open air. Strange.
ly enough, the incubator Ia shaped
something like IA coffin, while It's par
ticular aim Is to keep babies out OF cof-
fins. There are two kinds OF baby in
cubators, and they differ somewhat in
construction. The babies are taken out
of the incubators at the Maternity hos
pital to get their nourishment directly
| from their mothers, who live in the
building; but the mother In the Post
Graduate hospital may not see her or
spring from one weeks end to an
other.
Therefore the youngster must be fed
by artificial means, and, after much
experiment and study, the doctors have
completed an incubator by means of
which the baby Ia nourished without
being removed from its snug little nest.
The moment baby for the incubator
arrives ut the Maternity hospital the
whitc-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 Ia thon
weighed, clothes and all, before he Is
laid inside and the glass cover is placed
over him.
Underneath the board upon which
the little mite rests are three bottles
that are kept constantly full Of hot
water. The air passing in from below
flows over these and through an open
ing IA the board into the chamber
where the infant is. A thermomotci
keeps the attendant continually in
formed as to the temperature, and q
little aluminium anenometcr In the
small chimney through which the nj,
cscnpes. and which furnishes the
draught that keeps the baby supplicc
with fresh air, always indicates wheth
CIR or not the circulation OF the air II
good.
The weight 10 very important mat
ter. One baby In the incubator l
weighed every day. A healthy bah.
should show a slight diurnal incrcas
in weight, and IL the doctors find tina
the dilninutivc patient 10 not growing
hcl vier they seek remedies for his in
disposition. This Is the truest motho,
they have of ascertaining the baby
progress, and therefore the creates
care is taken that it's clothes shall al
ways be of the same weight, as two %
three ounces is considerable increas
for n young man or woman whose as
gregate weight Is only six, seven o
eight pounds. About seventy per cent
OF the "incubated" babies have lived
and Mt least City per cent. Of thcs
would have died but for the incubator
; The incubator which will be in tn
= babies ward Of the new building OF tn
= POSTGRADUATE hospital IL n great IN
provcment on that ut the Maternit
hospital, although II lacks the sent
mental surroundings of the one
charge of the young woman doctors.
The incubator is set upon bicyc
wheels, so IL may be moved about whel
ever desired. The fresh air is heatc
10y passing between two strata of ht
water, rises up both at the head an
the foot of the mattress and Is kept
motion by an aluminium fan run L
clockwork, thus preventing any poss
bility of the little patients suiferin
for want of air. There IL also tut
for the supply of oxygen, liberal quar-
titles OF which are good for babies VIII
are hanging ON TO life by the mere'
thread, and IL In believed this improve
ment will save a great many lives tha
, would have been lost In the old incl
, bator.
, by means of clever mechanical d.
,, vice the weight of the baby is alway
,, registered, so that the physician ma
: discover the slightest variation at an
time. Infants are subject to tuberculg
diseases, which develop before the do
tor knows what IL the matter.
course, the incubator must DC opene
p in order 10 feed the baby its artiflcii
: food, but by means Of n def sliding
I the covers the entrance of any cold n
r from the outside IL prevented. TT
J. temperature of the inside Of the inc
I bator is kept rs near ninety-eight d
grccs as possible.
The POSTGRADUATE hospital gets MOI
q subjects for incubators than the Nj
ternity hospital, and the task of brin
ing the little ones by slow stages
1 vigor and health Is the more ditlicu
because the mothers are not present
nurse them. The learned doctors
n this institution have literally snatch'
life from the jaws Of death on mo
4 than one occasion.
u BREvITY TO writing Is what chart
is TO all other virtues; Righteousness
7 nothing without the one, nor autho
ship without the other. Sydney Smit
! In is said that Archibald Claverir
Guntcr was refused admission To Il
/ Authors club in New York on Il
y ground that MIR. Barnes OF Ne
York; Is not literature,
one Boot 700 many
II Head Surgeon at the TIospital-I nv
tell YOU, my good woman, that yc