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 FOUNDLING HOSPITAL 347 and called exposure also a kind of murder. He deprived parents of all hope of being able to recover the children, and decreed that parents who were too poor to educate their children should receive pecuniary assistance. But the practice of exposure was nevertheless continued for a long time after, and was not completely prohibited till the time of Valentinian, Valens, and Gratian, in the latter part of the 4th cen- tury. The emperor Justinian passed a law in 529 which declared foundlings to be free, and forbade those by whom they were received and educated to treat them and detain them as slaves. The public institutions which are be- lieved to have existed for the reception of foundlings in Rome in the 6th century are called by Justinian Irephotrophia, in imitation of the Greek institutions, but nothing is known about their regulation and organization. Es- tablishments for foundlings are said to have existed in the 7th century in Anjou, and about the same time at Treves, both in the Frankish dominions. The capitularies of Charlemagne refer to foundling hospitals as distinct institu- tions. In Milan an institution was founded about 787 by an archpriest named Dathius, to prevent infanticide. Of the prevalence of this crime he gives a very pathetic account in the letter of foundation, which has been pub- lished by Muratori. The mothers of children (mostly illegitimate) carried to this establish- ment strewed salt between the swaddling clothes, to denote that the infant had not been baptized. The foundlings were suckled by hired nurses, taught some handicraft, and at the age of seven discharged as free-born. This last regulation was probably made by Dathius, to guard against the custom by which the foundlings became the property of those who received and educated them, unless they were demanded back by their parents within ten days. In 1070 Olivier de la Traie founded at Montpellier a charitable order, whose members called themselves Jiospitalarii Sancti Spiritus, and devoted themselves to the assistance of the poor, and of foundlings and orphans. A separate foundling hospital for 600 children, under the name of hospital of the Holy Ghost, was founded in the city in 1180 by a member of that order, the count Guy of Montpellier, which was sanctioned by Pope Innocent III. in 1198. During the 13th century foundling hospitals were established at Rome, and at Eimbeck in Germany. The magnificent found- ling hospital at Florence, called at present spe- dale degli innocent^ was founded about 1316; kindred institutions were established in Paris in 1362, and in Venice in 1380. The hospital at Nuremberg, founded in 1331, had a lying-in department, and made it obligatory on the children to refund the expense of their educa- tion. The hospital of the Holy Ghost at Mar- seilles, founded after that in Montpellier, was the first to adopt the revolving box, by means of which the children could be conveyed into the building without any possibility of those who brought them being seen. At other places foundlings were put into marble shells at church doors. The great hospital of Santo Spirito in Rome, on the right bank of the Tiber, near St. Peter's, contains a foundling hospital capable of accommodating more than 3,000 children. The number annually received is about 1,150. During the ten year's ending in 1865, out of 11,425 received, 9,260 died. Many of the chil- dren are sent to the country to be nursed, and among them the mortality is said to be the greatest. There are several other foundling hospitals in Rome ; the total number of found- lings is estimated at more than 3,000 annually, the facilities for admission being so great that children are brought from all parts of central and southern Italy. At Naples foundlings are chiefly cared for at the hospital della Annun- ziata. There are in Naples annually about 2,000 foundlings out of a population in 1872 of about 450,000. Naples has the reputation of devoting more care to the education and welfare of foundlings than any other city of Italy. The number of foundlings in Tuscany is about 12,000 out of a population in 1872 of 2,100,000. A considerable number of the found- lings in Italy are supposed to be legitimate chil- dren abandoned on account of poverty. About one in 16 of the children is claimed by the pa- rents ; the majority are cared for during infancy and childhood, either in the hospitals or among the neighboring peasantry, who supply them with board at a small remuneration. When of sufficient age they are dismissed to support themselves, but in many of the hospitals they have some claim in after life on occasions of dis- tress or sickness. Many children carried to the foundling hospitals are accompanied by tokens. In the hospital degV innocenti at Florence a piece of lead imprinted with a number is hung round the neck of each babe, in such a manner that it cannot be easily removed. By these means, and by other tokens, it is easy to obtain information, even at a late period, in regard to each child. Illegitimate children cannot be re- turned until the expenses are fully refunded. There are foundling hospitals in Cadiz, Bar- celona, and other Spanish cities, and several in Madrid. The girls brought up in the foundling hospital at Barcelona were formerly led in pro- cession when of marriageable age, and any man who took a fancy to one of them might indicate his choice by throwing a handkerchief on his favorite girl, and marry her. The num- ber of foundlings annually received in the principal hospital at Madrid is about 1,200. The hospital is chiefly served by sisters of charity. The infants are intrusted to nurses, and at the age of seven are transferred to the college of the desamparados (forsaken), where they receive instruction. Some are sent to an asylum, where they are drafted to learn practi- cal handicrafts, and this asylum is in a great measure self-supporting. In 1794 Charles IV. ordered that children of unknown parents should be considered legitimate and admissible