Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1905-08-01
INFANT INcUBAT0Rs.
A Much Needed and Scientific
Blessing.

MINK OF family OF 1nCuDatOI
children, each baby in its own
castle and each receiving royal
care. They are such delicate,
frail, tiny little cherubs, that they
are not yet ready to begin their
struggle for existence. Then think
of the care and attention that
must be given them, of change
of linen, and especially swaddling
clothes, of the feeding and nurs-
ing and medical attendance that
must be given them, and that
thinker will have an idea of the
Infant Incubators that forms one
of the most interesting and thor
oughly scientific feature of the
Lewis and Clark Exposition.
Half dozen skilled nurses, who
have been trained especially for
the incubator institution in Ber-
lin and Paris, devote their time
and energy and care to these ba-
bies, while DR.. M. A. Couney,
OF Berlin, superintends and di-
rects the work.
To the spectators, the incuba-
tor babies appear to lead an un-
disturbed life behind the glass
doors of their castles, peacefully
sleeping upon the whitest of pill
lows, their inhnitesimal hands
peeplng out of doll sleeves, their
eyes looking only occasionally in
to an unknown world. The av-
erage weight OF each is about two
and one-half pounds, but even
though they are SO small they are
not so quiet as they look, and if
they reach the incubators in time
and are alive in forty-eight hours
after arrival DR.. Couney declares
they have a good chance to live
and thrive. These babies are
are prematurely born, and usual
ly come 10 the incubator in a
comatose condition. By drastic
measures vitality is brought back
AS soon as received, the frail in
/ FAINT is given a bath in water and
mustard. Then two drops ol
brandy is placed in its mouth,
which acts as stimulant. Its
body is rubbed with especially
prepared lotion, and into the in
cubator it goes. For four days i
: is kept at temperature of 90 tt
100 degrees, being removed reg
| ularly day and night every tw'
hours to be fed IS grains of neur
: ishnent. Its food consists of mill
supplied by healthy wet nurses
The child being too weak to hav'
: desire for food, a nasal spoon /
t used, and the milk Is drawn an'
: placed III tall glass, which i
/ immersed in a larger glass con
T tanning warm wafer. This keep
the milk at the proper tempera
t ture. The nasal spoon and tn
g method of nasal feeding. is ne,
e to America revelation in fact
:. The infant is out of danger whe
/ it has strength to take at least 8
} grains or one ounce of nourist
/ ment at a single feeding. Ever
q infant is weighed before and a
/ ter feeding to ascertain the amour
Of nourishment taken, and con
plete record is kept of this, as
"a all other details of the incubate
process. The air of the incub;
tors is kept at a uniform tempe
ature by means of an automat
Il contrivance, and fresh air is il
: troduced through large pip
\ \ The air is purified by passln
e through an anticeptic fluid, an
K then through, cotton, and it
j. X warmed before it is permitted
ms pass into the infants apartren
m e. The most important conside
ng alton for child prematurely bo,
]? m is temperature. Consequently Il
to temperature of the incubator
Ter kept uniform and the autolnat
~ continuance used for this is
perfectly regulated that the tel
perature is always correct MOI
is over, a thermostat at the front
ert the incubator is a constant gui
th ith as to the thermal condition. ST
les tistics show that o. premature
Us weakly born infants, under orr
- nary conditions, only IS per &c
ri live; by means of the incubate
.he ia IS per cent are saved. These a
icy ifcial mothers, the incubators, 9
wonderful bits Of mechanism,