The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-08
INFANT ~INCUBATORS.
A Successful for Raising
Weakly British Babies.
London Standard.

At the Victorian era exhibition at Earls-
court, recently, a novel treatment of prema-
turely born and weakly infants was opened
to private inspection. The situation Of the
model institution, which is of considerable
dimensions, having a .siXty-foot frontage
and a corresponding breadth of twenty-five,
is IN the line of buildings in the Western
Gardens, opposite the old Welcome Club.
1t is conveniently divided into three Sec
tons, In the central one are the handsome
nickel-plated and plate-glaSs incubators, in
which the infants are placed, neatly
wrapped in cotton wool and laid on little
white coverlets. One wing of the building,
which is built of brick, is arranged as a
model nursery, while the other is used for
the offices of the nurses and medical men
in charge. The most important considera-
lions in the vitality of premature infants
are weight and temperature, and on these
features depend entirely the chances of saw
ing their lives. AS a general fact, infants
weighing less than two pounds three ounces
die on the day of their birth. Of those
under three pounds five ounces half are
saved by the Altman apparatus. In the
primitive methods of years ago the pun
babies were wrapped in wadding or in a
sheepskin with the wool adhering. In some
countries they were put in jars of feathers
or the cradle was drawn close to the hearth.
M. TURNER'S couveuses have done good
service at the Paris Maternity Hospital,
and other apparatus has been usefully en-
ployed to a limited extent, but nothing so
regular and uniform, so pure and whole
some in its operation, has heretofore been
devised.
The new apparatus was explained to the
audience by Professor Coney, Of Heidel-
berg, its paramount qualification being the
automatic maintenance of a uniform tenn
perature. The incubator is a metal and
glass case under a cubic yard in capacity.
The front portion is formed by two swing
ing doors. The child rests on the coverlet
of a fine wire hammock suspended from the
four corners. The air is supplied through a
pipe four inches in diameter connected to
an air box, and before entering it is made
moist by passing through a small sheet of
antiSeptic absorbent wool. The air then
passes through dry wool, which retains the
SCOT and other impurities of the atmos-
phere. From this filter the air traverses
another pipe leading to the center of the
incubator. over its oriice is placed a disk
for uniformly distributing the air, and
above all is a three-foot chimney with a
horizontal revolving fan, which compels the
exhausted air to escape. The uniform heat
ing of the case is produced by hot water
drawn from an external boiler heated by
p~araffin, gas or electricity, the circulation
being effected by a copper pipe running be-
meath the wire hammock. In the right
hand wall is fixed a thermostat connected
to q light chain, which suspends an alumni
ium cone lid over the lamp of the boiler,
and it's expansions and contractiOns auto
matically control the temperature to the
degree to which the apparatus is set. A
thermometer suspended inside one of the
glass doors renders possible observations of
the temperature of the interior, while a
hygrometer similarly indicates the moisture
of the air within.