Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/514

 482 FOUNDLING HOSPITALS practice were sometimes superstitious, more often extremely practical As the natives of Gujarat said to Major Walker, &quot; Pay our daughters marriage portions, and they shall live.&quot; The feeling here was one of social dignity mixed with the strong contempt which many savages express for the single life. But in most cases children were killed simply because the parents, having no realized wealth, did not expect to be able to clothe and feed them. This is especi ally seen in the frequent killing of female children and those who are sick or deformed. In some places the practice has been confined to the children of concubines, of stranger fathers, or of mothers dying from sickness. In the earliest society the right to kill belonged to the father, sometimes assisted by a person skilled in omens, or by a council of friends. But the usage soon hardened into a binding custom or into express legislation. Thus in the exogamous communities girls were clearly a source, not of weakness only, but of danger. At a much later period the number of a family, or of the daughters, was often fixed by law, and both Lycurgus and the Roman decemvirs directed the slaughter of deformed children. This violence to the domestic affections was probably made easier by the notion which appears in Greek science and in Roman law that neither the foetus nor the newly-born child is entitled to the privileges of humanity. The Greek pastoral of Longus (The Loves of Daphnis and Ghloe), and the Heautontimoru- menos of Terence, show still better than the text of laws how the conscience of a civilized society reconciled itself to such cruelties. And the sober reasoning of Aristotle (Republic, vii. c. 16) goes even beyond the custom of his time. Pliny the elder defends infanticide as a necessary check on population, and Quintilian and Seneca bear witness to the frightful mortality among children exposed, and the systematic mutilation of those who survived. Notwith standing the eloquent protests of the Christian fathers, it was not till the time of Severus and Caracalla that a Roman lawyer ventured to make the noble statement, &quot; Necare videtur non tantum is qui pavtutn perfocat, sed is qui abjicit et qui alimonia denegat, et is qui publicis locis misericordia? causa exponit quam ipse non habet.&quot; 1 The legislation of Constantino did not go beyond a declaration that the killing of a son was parricide, but the famous law of Valentinian, Valens, and Gratian (unusquisque suam sobolem nutriat, C. viii. 52, 2) punished exposure by the loss of the patria potestas, and secured the rights of the foster-father. Fin ally, by Novel 153, Justinian declared that the found ling should no longer be the slave of the foster-father, but should be free. This, however, did not affect western Europe, where social disorder and the recurrence of famine led to extensive sales of children. Against this evil, which was noticed by several councils, the church provided a rough system of relief, children being deposited (jactati) in marble shells at the church doors, and tended first by the matricularii or male nurses, and then by the nutricarii or foster-parents. 2 Nothing is known of the brephotrophia which are said to have existed in the Eastern empire at this time, nor of the public tables (such as Velleiana, Boebiana) which particular emperors are said to have provided for the support of children. The earlier traditions of a hospital at the Cynosarges in Athens and at the Columna Lactaria in the vegetable market at Rome are disputed. It is in the 7th and 8th centuries that definite institutions for foundlings are established in such towns as Treves, Milan, and Montpellier. In the 1 5th century Garcias, archbishop of Valentia, is a conspicuous figure in this charitable work ; but his fame is entirely eclipsed by that of St Vincent de 1 See Julius I aulus, sii-e de parties expositions et nece apud vetcrc.t, liy Gerard Noodt, 170,0, criticized by Bynkershoek, JUe Jure occidciuli, ccndendi, et exponendi liberos apud Jlomanos, 1719. 2 See Capitular ia Rcgum Francorum, ii. 474. Paul, who in the reigu of Louis XIII., with the help of the countess of Joigny, Mine, le Gras, and other religious ladies, rescued the foundlings of Paris from the horrors of a primitive institution named La Couche (Rue St Landry), and ultimately obtained from Louis XIV. the use of the Bicetre for their accommodation. Letters patent were granted to the Paris hospital in 1670. The Hutel-Dieu of Lyons was the next in importance. No provision, how ever, was made outside the great towns; the houses in the cities were overcrowded and administered with laxity; and in 1784 Necker prophesied that the state would yet be seriously embarrassed by this increasing evil. 3 From 1452 to 1789 the law had imposed on the seigneurs de haut justice the duty of succouring children found deserted on their territories. The first constitutions of the Revolution undertook as a state debt the support of every foundling. For a time premiums were given to the mothers of illegiti mate children, the &quot; enfants de la patrie.&quot; By the law of 12 Brumaire, An II. &quot; Toute recherche de la paternite est interdite,&quot; while by art. 341 of the Code Napoleon, &quot; la recherche de le mate rnite est admise.&quot; France. The present laws of France relating to this part of what is called L Assistance Publique are the decree of January 1811, the instruction of February 1823, the decree of 5th March 1852, and the law of 5th May 18C9. These laws carry out the general prin ciples of the law of 7th Frimaire An V., which completely decen tralized the system of national poor relief established by the Revolu tion. The &quot;enfants assistes&quot; include, besides orphans and found lings proper, infants brought by their parents into the asylum, and those born in lying-in hospitals and left there by their mothers, children of persons undergoing a judicial sentence, children tem porarily taken in while their parents are in the hospital, and an increasing number of children, legitimate, illegitimate, and orphans, who are supported by a system of out-door relief. The asylum which receives them is a departmental and not a communal insti tution. The state pays only the cost of inspection and superin tendence. There remain the &quot;home&quot; expenses, for the nurse (nourrice sedentaire), washing, and clothes; and the &quot;out-door&quot; expenses, which include (1) temporary assistance to unmarried mothers in order to prevent desertion ; (2) allowances to the foster- fathers (peres nourriciers) in the country for board, school money, &c. ; (3) clothing ; (4) travelling money for nurses and children ; (5) printing, &c. ; and (6) expenses in time of sickness and for burials and apprentice fees. In 1868 the total cost wasll, 300,171 frs., of which 2,570,171 frs. were paid by the regular foundling asylums, and 8,730,000 frs. by the departments and communes. This repre sented the support of 67,000 children. In 1828 there were 112,730 children supported at a cost of 9,794,737 frs. The decrease is attributed partly to out-door relief and partly to the suppression of the &quot;tours,&quot; of which there were 235 in 1812, and only 25 in 1860. No payments are made for the children after the age of twelve. They are generally apprenticed to a peasant or artisan, and until majority they remain under the guardianship of the administrative commissioners of the department. These commis sioners are about to receive a representative character, the councils of the communes and the department, the chambers of commerce, and the chief religious communities receiving a right of nomination, as well as the prefect who represents the state. The ministry of marine have a legal claim to the services of male foundlings, which is seldom exercised. The droit dc recherche is conceded to the parent on payment of a small fee. The decree of 1811 contemplated theivpay- ment of all expenses by a parent reclaiming a child. The same decree directed a &quot;tour &quot; or revolving box (Drchcylindcr in Germany) to be. kept at each hospital. These have been gradually discontinued. The &quot; Assistance Publique &quot; of Paris is specially provided for by the law of 10th January 1849. The management consists of a &quot;directeur&quot; appointed by the minister of the interior, and associated with a representative &quot; conseil de surveillance.&quot; The Paris Asylum for Enfants Trouves, with a small branch at Forges, contains about 700 beds. It receives about 4200 children in the year, or nearly one-seventh of the whole annual supply in France ; and the total average cost of each child for twelve years is said to be only 1500 frs. There is also in Paris (43 Rue de Journclles) a private charity called (Euvre dc V Adoption for the adoption of poor children and orphans. Among the better known school farms which receive children from the hospitals at very small rates of board are those of M. Fonrnct at Montagny near Chalon-sur-Saone, and of 1 Abbe Vedey at Varaignes in the Dordogne. It is impossible here to give even a 8 De V Administration des Finances, iii. 136 ; see also the article &quot; Enfant Expose &quot; in Diderot s Mnci/clopedie, 1755, and Chamoauet l Memoire 2&amp;gt;olitiqiie sur les Enfants, 1757.