Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/515

 FOUNDLING HOSPITALS 483 sketch of the long and able controversies which have occurred in France on the principles of management of foundling hospitals, the advantages of &quot; tours&quot; and the system of admission A bureau otirert, the transfer of orphans from one department to another, the free communication between parent and child, the hygiene and service of hospitals and the inspection of nurses, the education and reclamation of the children and the rights of the state in their future. Reference may be made to the work of Terme and Mont- falcon noticed at the end of this article. Belgium. In this country the arrangements for the relief of foundlings and the appropriation of public funds for that purpose very much resemble those in France, and can hardly be usefully described apart from the general questions of local government and poor law administration. The Commissions dcs Hospices Civiles, however, are purely communal bodies, although they receive pecu niary assistance from both the departments and the state. A decree of 1811 directed that there should be an asylum and a wheel for receiving foundlings in every arrondissement. The last &quot;wheel,&quot; that of Antwerp, was closed in 1860. The present law of 30th July 1834 distinguishes foundlings born of unknown parents from infants abandoned by known parents. Of the former the cost is divided between commune and province ; of the latter the cost falls entirely on the domicile dc sccours. The law of 1834 directs that the state budget shall contain an annual foundling .subsidy, which is distributed among the provinces. The suppression of the &quot;wheels &quot; is supposed to have reduced the subsidy from 94,608 frs. to 60,000 frs. in 1873, and the number of foundlings from 7703 in 1849 to f&amp;gt;745 in 1860. The great mass of the foundlings are in Brabant, that is, in Brussels, which in 1872 paid out nearly 300,000 frs. on their account. In the Netherlands many of the foundlings are sent to the &quot;beggar colonies,&quot; agricultural, spinning, and weaving establishments introduced in 1810 in imitation of the French depots de mendicite. They also resemble the Flemish ecoles agricoles de rt forme. (See DCS Institutions de Bicnfaisance ct de Preroyance en Bclgiquc, 1850 a 1860, par M. P. Lentz.) Italy is very rich in foundling hospitals, pure and simple, orphans and other destitute children being separately provided for. Pied mont has 18, making an animal expenditure of 1,084,000 frs.; Genoa has 6, with an expenditure of 350,000 frs. ; Lombard y has 13, with an expenditure of 1,468,000 frs. ; and the Emilia has 15, with an expenditure of 833,000 frs. In 1870 the gross expenditure in Italy on foundlings alone was 8,044,754 frs., more than twice the sum expended on pauper lunatics. The law concerning charitable works (3d August 1862) contemplates the erection of a charity board in every commune. At present both the communal council and the provincial deputation have certain rights of control over charitable administration. (See Delia Caritn Prcventiva in Italia, by Signor Fano. ) In &quot;Rome one branch of the St Spirito in Sassia (so called from the Schola Saxonum built in 728 by King Ina in the Borgo) has, since the time of Pope Sixtus IV., been devoted to foundlings. For ten years before 1869 the annual average of children admitted was 1141, of whom 382 were ascertained to be illegitimate and 300 legitimate, the rest uncertain. The average annual number of foundlings supported is 3268, the average annual deaths 981. The death-rate in the hospital is said to be 88 &quot;78 ; in the country at the nursing houses 12 80. The Conservatory is for the support of foundling girls who after passing through the hospital do not get settled in life. The whole institution costs 305,603 frs. per annum. (See The Charitable Institutions of Rome, by Cardinal Morichini.) In Naples the foundling hospital is called &quot; 1 An- miimata.&quot; It receives yearly about 2000 &quot; figli della Madonna,&quot; as they are called. It must not be confounded with the more famous Albergo Reclusorio, or Seraglio dei Poveri, which is an ordinary charity for the education of children and the maintenance of infirm old persons. The chief house at Florence is called &quot; degli Innocenti &quot;;* at Genoa, the &quot; Pammatone&quot;; at Milan, &quot;Santa Caterina alia ruota.&quot; In Venice the Casa degli Esposti or foundling hospital, founded in 1346, and receiving 450 children annually, was recently separated from the &quot; Riunione di Instituti Pii,&quot; and placed under provincial administration. The. splendid legacy of the last doge, Ludovico Manin, is applied to the support of about 160 children by the &quot; Congregazione di Carita&quot; acting through 30 parish boards (deputazione fraternate). Austria. In Austria foundling hospitals occupied a very pro minent place in the general instructions which, by rescript dated 16th April 1781, the emperor Joseph II. issued to the charitable en dowment commission. Acting under the advice of Count Boucquoy, the author of The Neighbourly Love Association, which supplied first Bohemia and then the empire with a type of poor law adminis tration, the emperor provided for the case of destitute children before proceeding to deal with the cases of destitute sick and infirm poor. This class of children includes, besides foundlings proper, the children born in lying-in hospitals of unmarried women, and the children of unmarried women who can show that they have 1 For the history of the Misericoi-dla and Blpallo (White Cock), founded by OA Brothers of Mercy, see Horncr s Walts in Florence, vol i. been suddenly confined when on their way to the lying-in hospital, and even in some cases legitimate children whose parents are pre vented by illness or other temporary cause from maintaining them, and orphans when below the age required for admission to a regular orphanage. In 1818 these foundling asylums and the lying-in houses were declared to be state institutions. They were accordingly supported by the state treasury until the fundamental law of 20th October 1860 handed them over to the provincial com mittees. They are now local institutions, depending on provincial funds, and are quite separate from the ordinary parochial poor insti tute. Admission is gratuitous when the child is actually found on the street, or is sent by a criminal court, or where the mother undertakes to serve for four months as nurse or midwife in an asylum, or produces a certificate from the parish priest and &quot; poor- father&quot; (the parish inspector under the Bouequoy scheme) that she has no money. In other cases payments of 30 to 100 florins are made. When two months old the child is sent for six or ten years to the houses in the neighbourhood of respectable married persons, who have certificates from the police or the poor-law authorities, and who are inspected by the latter and by a special medical officer. These persons receive a constantly diminishing allowance, and the arrangement may be determined by 14 days notice on either side. The foster-parents may retain the child in their service or employ- ment till the age of twenty-two, but the true parents may at any time reclaim the foundling on reimbursing the asylum and com pensating the foster-parents. The enlightened principles of the rescript of 1781, with regard to the general and technical education of the children, do not seem to be carried out in practice. It is said that there are in the empire 35 foundling hospitals, receiving annually 120,000 children. Turkey. Under the Greek system of vestry relief, which works very efficiently at Constantinople, a large sum is spent on found lings. There is no hospital, but the children are brought before the five members (tiriropoi) of the vestry (f abrique) or parish church committee, who, acting as the coumbaros or god-father, board out the child with some poor family for a small monthly payment, and afterwards provide the child with some sort of remunerative work. Russia. Under the old Russian system of Peter I. foundlings were received at the church windows by a stall&quot; of women paid by the state. But since the reign of Catherine II. the foundling hospitals have been in the hands of the provincial officer of public charity (prykaz obshestvennago pryzrenya). The great central institutions (Vospitatelnoi Dom), at Moscow and St Petersburg (with a branch at Gatchina) were founded by Catherine. When a child is brought the baptismal name is asked, and a receipt is given, by which the child may be reclaimed up to the age of ten. The mother may nurse her child. After the usual period of six years in the country very great care is taken with the education, especially of the more promising children. Of the 26,000 sent annually to these two houses from all parts of Russia, only 25 per cent, are said to reach majority. The hospital is still, however, a valuable source of recruits for the public service. Malthus ( The Principles of Population, vol. i. p. 434) has made a violent attack on these Russian charities. lie argues that they discourage marriage and therefore population, and that the best management is unable to prevent a high mortality. He adds : &quot;An occasional child murder from false shame is saved at a very high price if it can be done only by the sacrifice of some of the best and most useful feelings of the human heart in a great part of the nation.&quot; It docs not appear, however, that the rate of illegitimacy in Russia is comparatively high ; it is so in the two great cities. The rights of parents over the children were very much restricted, and those of the Govern ment much extended by a ukase issued by the emperor Nicholas in 1837. The most eminent Russian writer on this subject is M. Gouroff. See his Rcchc.rchcs sur les Enfants Trouves, and Essai sur I histoire des Enfants Trouves, Paris, 1829. In America the foundling hospitals are chiefly private charities. There is a large one called the Cuna in the city of Mexico. The house for girls at Rio de Janeiro is once a year frequented by men in want of wives, each application being considered by the managers. In Brazil there are several houses of mercy for found lings, and exposures are often made at the doors of private houses. The foundling asylum of the sisters of charity in New York was opened in 1869. In 1873 it received 1124 infants not three weeks old. The annual cost is 115,000 dollars. A crib is placed in the vestibule at night, and the name and date of birth are generally left with the child. Great Britain. The Foundling Hospital of London was incor porated by Royal Charter in 1739 &quot; for the maintenance and educa tion of exposed and deserted young children.&quot; The petition of Captain Thomas Coram, who is entitled to the whole credit of the foundation, 2 states as its objects &quot;to prevent the frequent murders of poor miserable children at their birth, and to suppress the in human custom of exposing new-born infants to perish in the streets. &quot; At first no questions were asked about child or parent, but a distin-
 * Addison had suggested such a charity (Guardian, No. 3).