Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 10.djvu/693

* INFANT. 607 INFANTICIDE. The action must be brought bjr the infant's near friend {pruclutin ami) or guardian ad litem, who is a reUitive, a friend, or other proper per- son permitted bj- the court to prosecute the action in the infant's behalf. Courts of equity early constituted themselves the especial pro- tectors of infants, giving them relief in variou.^ ways, particularly by appointing guardians over their person and propertj'. ' The care of an in- fant's property by guardian is now generally regulated by statute (see Guardlvx), the effect of which is to place the infant's property in the possession of a guardian appointed by the court, who is required to invest and care for the prop- erty as a trustee for the infant. See CoxTK.cr; Domestic Relations : and consult the authori- ties there referred to. INFANTE, en-f:in'ta (Sp., Port., infant). The title given in Spain and Portugal to the princes of the royal family, with the exception of the heir apparent, the corresponding title of Infanta being given to the princesses. Since the fourteenth century the heir apparent to the throne in Spain has been styled Prince of As- turias, and the heir apparent in Portugal, until the separation of Brazil from the mother coun- try, bore the title of Prince of Brazil. INFANTE, Jost Miguel (1778-1844). A South American statesman, born in Santiago de Chile. He played a prominent part in the Revo- lution of 1810, was President of the Government Junta in Chile after 1814. and went on a diplo- matic mission to the Argentine State in 1817. His patriotism was unselfish ; he came out against arbitrary authority, and refused office when he thought his country in no need of his services. In 184.3 he declined the position of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, offered him as a mark of the nation's gratitude. He contrib- uted greatly toward the emancipation of slaves in Chile and took active part in the establishment of the common-school system. INFANTICIDE. The killing of an infant or newly Imrn child; often in a broader sense, the killing of an infant, whether entirely born, or in the act of being born, or of the matured ftetus in the womb. As an institution or customary practice in- fanticide has existed in most savage or semi- civilized races, and still .survives in many; as an occasional or abnormal act it has existed in all times and among all peoples. Some authorities, as McLennan, have claimed that the custom has been practically universal among primitive races; but the researches of other investigators, as Spencer and Westermarck. have shown it to have been much less wide- spread than this. Infanticide as practiced among early peoples is to be traced ultimately to con- ditions of hardship attached to the bringing up of children. Thus amimg the Abipones. where the women often practice infanticide, the boy was generally sacrificed; for when a son grew up it was necessary to buy a wife for him, while a grown-up daughter would always demand her price. But this hardship more usually attaches to the bringing up of female children, and it is therefore the fenuiles who are usually killed rather than the males. This is said to lie espp. eially true of those tribes who are surrounded by enemies, and who are forced by their mannei of living to lead a migratory life. The prac- tice of killing female ehildrep among these peo- ple often left the primitive hordes with very few young women, so that they were forced to prey upon each other for their wives. This by some has been considered to account for the rise and growth of exogamy; while others have (with less reason) attributed infanticide to the custom of exogamy. In Africa, where the warm cdimate and the abundance of tropical fruits make the conditions of existence easy, there are no well- authenticated cases of the habit of destroying new-born children. The natives of two-thirds of the South Sea Islands practice infanticide probably more ex- tensively than any other peoples known to his- tory. The chief reason is probably the fact that the islands are of very limited extent, and are as thickly populated as they could be and support life by the natural products of the .soil. In parts of Australia it is said that the mother destroyed all but two boys and one girl, while in Samoa and other Pacific Islands and in some parts of Australia the custom is unknown. Gen- erally speaking, therefore, infanticide is most commonly observed among races living where the strug.gle for subsistence is most severe, or where custom imposes the most burdens upon those rearing children. The best-known instances of infanticide are those which existed in various forms through India, but which are now mostly suppressed in the territory under the control of the British Government by a system of compul- sory reporting of births and deaths and of po- lice supervisiim in districts suspected of it. It was practiced among certain of the tribes of lower caste, as well as among the Rajputs, although forbidden by the Koran and the Vedas. Among some tribes it was due to hardship attaching to the procuring of the means of subsistence, and among others its origin, or the persistence of it, was due to artificial hardships attendant upon child-rearin2. as among the Rajputs, with whom it was dishonorable for a girl to remain unmarried, and the necessary expenses of her marriage were a ruinous burden upon the par- ents. A similar condition obtains among cer- tain of the American Indians of the Northwest. When infanticide has become established as a custom among a savage race, its practice, like all practices connected with birth or marriage, frequently assumes a .sacrificial or religious im- port, and it is by some considered to be the ex- planation of the origin of the practice of sacri- ficing children to the gods, the custom of exog- amy as above noted, and other rites or ceremo- nies. So. also the method of killing becomes, in many eases, a matter of custom, as by easting into the Ganges in some parts of India (whence (lie reverence paid to the alligator. which feil u)i(in the childnen), or poisoning with opium or datura smeared upon the mother's breast, or by sacrifice to some god. Where the practice survives as a sacrifice it is usually the boy child that is killed. Any change which makes child-rearing less of a burden tends to decrease or do away with in- fanticide. It may, however, still be Jiermitted or survive as a means of disposing of the weak or defective, as was the case in ancient Greece, where the killing of weak children was enjoined in the ideal systems of Aristotle and Plato, and by the actual laws of Lycurgus and Solon. Infanticide, as it exists among peoples whose