Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/356

348 FOUNDLING HOSPITAL to public office ; that all who called them bas- tards should be punished ; and that foundlings in case of judicial sentence should receive such punishments only as could be imposed upon privileged persons, like the nobility and other high classes. In 1860 there were 149 found- ling hospitals in Spain, with 53,464 foundlings; the illegitimate births in 1859 numbered 31,- 080. In Portugal, where illegitimate births are much more numerous than in Spain, the number of foundlings is estimated at 77 annu- ally to every 10,000 inhabitants. There are 21 foundling hospitals. The number of found- lings under care in 1860 was 33,500, about 16,000 being received annually, and the mor- tality was 50 per cent. Among the first hos- pitals which educated foundfings in France was the H6tel Dieu of Lyons (1523). Francis I. founded a kindred institution in 1536. A few years afterward it became customary for sisters of charity to place foundlings at the entrance of the cathedral of Notre Dame of Paris, exclaiming : Faites lien d ces pauvres enfants trouves ("Extend your charity to these poor foundlings "). They were accommodated in an asylum called la couche (the bed), at the expense of the dignitaries of the law and of the church. The metropolitan see, the monaste- ries, and chiefly the hospital of the Holy Ghost, were called upon to contribute toward their support. The dispensation of this charity led to grave abuses. The women hired to take care of the children traded with them. Some were sold to sorcerers, for use in their art; others to beggars, who paraded them in solicit- ing alms. The asylum was transferred to an- other place, but the donation's were not suffi- cient to support the institution. The children increased in numbers at a fearful rate. Lots were cast to decide which should have the benefit of education, and those who drew blanks were entirely neglected. Many lost their health or died from the deteriorated milk of sickly nurses. Those admitted into the asylums were almost all illegitimate or of unknown parents. A foundling department was established in 1563 in the hospital of the Holy Ghost, under the direction of the city of Paris, and managed by an association of priests. The children were well educated, many of the boys for the priest- hood, and many of the girls were married and provided with dowries. But this hospital (which was suppressed in 1670) refused to re- ceive illegitimate children. St. Vincent de Paul pleaded the cause of the poor children who were excluded, collected funds, and in 1640 established a new institution for found- lings, with the assistance of philanthropic la- dies, and with the cooperation of the king and the court. In 1670 it was converted into a public institution by Louis XIV., and was transferred to the rue de Notre Dame. Reve- nues were assigned to it and taxes raised for its support, and the first president and pro- curator general of the parliament placed at the head of its administration. The number of foundlings received at this institution in suc- cessive periods of 22 years, from 1640 to 1793, was: 7,668, 14,101, 38,382, 40,437, 64,143, 114,729, 129,143; total, 408,603. More than one third of these children came from the provinces. Serfdom had ceased to exist, and the seigneurs took this means to rid their lands of abandoned children, as they could no longer draw profit from them. In 1779 parliament ordered the nobles to provide for the children found on their lands, and forbade their convey- ance into Paris without special permits. After the revolution of 1789 the republic assumed the guardianship of foundlings. The terrorists de- creed (July 4, 1793) that they should be called enfants de la patrie. In 1798, 11,000,000 francs were assigned toward their support, and it was ordered that two lying-in hospitals should be connected with the foundling house in Paris. But the usefulness of the institution was crippled by a lack of nurses. An imperial decree of Jan. 19, 1811, ordered the establish- ment of a foundling hospital in each arrondisse- ment of France, to be governed by the follow- ing regulations: The children were suckled and weaned in the hospitals, and kept there until the age of six, when they were placed under the charge of peasants and artisans, who received a stipend for their board and training. This stipend was reduced from year to year until the children reached the age of 12, when the able-bodied boys were placed at the dis- posal of the minister of marine, while for those who were invalids some labor appropriate to their condition was provided in the hospital. They were the property of the state, and those who at the age of 12 had not been taken into the public service were immediately placed un- der apprenticeship by the administration of the hospital. The expense for nursing and for the outdoor board of the children below the age of 12 was paid by the departments to which they belonged. The expenditure for clothing was paid by the respective hospitals. The number of foundlings annually received in France has varied in recent years from 25,000 to 30,000. The annual number claimed by and restored to their parents is about 3,000, or about 1 in 9. Previous to 1811 the children were deposited in the hands of an officer of the institution ; but the decree passed in that year obliged each arrondissement to establish a hospital of de- posit, provided with a turning box. In accor- dance with that decree 256 hospitals were es- tablished provided with such boxes, and 17 without them. But many arrondissements re- moved the boxes and the hospitals of deposit. It was believed that the great increase of found- lings was due to the use of the boxes, hence their suppression. It was discovered that pa- rents put themselves in collusion with those appointed by the hospital to nurse the children or to supply them with board, and it was as- certained that there were mothers who, having discarded their own offspring by secretly de- positing them in the turning boxes, managed