INFANTS. 611 INFEFTMENT AND SASINE. of Infancy and Childhood (New York, 1900) ; Fischer, Infant Fcediny in Health and in Disease (Pliilailcliiiiia. llWlj. See Fooo; illLK. INFANT SCHOOL. An educational, or rath- er charitable institution, wliieh sprang up dur- ing the latter part of the eighteenth and early part of the nineteenth century, at first on the Continent, and later in (iroat Britain, and in the United States. The object was to care for neglected children of early age, especially those of factorj' women, who were left with few physi- cal comforts and no moral oversight. Such chil- dren were gathered together during the day, and, in order to render their care less irksome, tl.ey were taught to march, to perform simple gjninastic exercises, to sing simple songs, to re- peat the multiplication t«ibles, names of the days of the week, and similar things, and in later years -Tt some places to read and sew. The edu- cational purpose was purely secondary, at least until the influence of the I'estalozzian ideas pre- vailed in the second (juarter of the nineteenth century. There is no historic connection with the origin of the kindergarten (q.v. ). The first infant school was founded in 17S0 by Oberlin (q.v.), the pastor of Walbach in France. He appointed women in his own parish to as- semble the children between the ages of two and six and to interest them, by conversation, in pic- tures, maps, sewing, etc. In Great Britain the first infant schofd was due to Robert Owen, opened in connection with his communistic es- tablishment at Lanark. Scotland. In 1827 the Glasgow Normal Seminary was founded by David Stowe to carrj' out this idea of the infant school. In 1819 a similar school was established in London in charge of Vilderspin. under the patronage of such men as .lames Mill, Zachary Macaulay. and Lord Brougham. Other schools soon followed, and in 18.30 this movement was unified in the forma- tion of the •■Home and Colonial Infant School So- ciety," which contributed more than any other instrumentality to the extension of the infant school by training teachers and instituting model schools. Up to this time the movement had suc- ceeded by keeping distinct the processes of train- ing and instruction, and by not attempting any educational work of the latter character. The society was the outgrowth of the influence of the ^tayos, brother and sister, one of whom had been a student of Pestalozzi at Yverdon. There- after the work of the infant school was to in- clude instruction after the I'estalozzian methods. T'nder the educational grants of Parliament, many infant schools were established, and espe- cially since the Royal Commission of 185S-6I tl ey may be considered as a component part of the British school system. In Continental Ku- rope it is the kindergarten built upon Froebc- lijin lines that is very generally established. In France, however, the public cn'che. which is for children of two and three years of a<je. is vei-y general. The fcolc enfaniinc for children of four and five years of age is a kindergarten. Such schools, as distinct parts of school systems, will be described under the title Nation.l Ent'CA- TTON, Systkms of. The tenn infant school is or- dinarily restricted to the type of charity-grant schools of Fncrland. In the United States the first infant school was established in Boston, in 1826, under .. B. .Icott. While this school was a marked success, and there were numerous similar attempts in v,arious other .American cities, there was no great demand for such in- stitutions in a population not primarily urban and engaged in manufacture. Similar needs were met by the Sunday-school, and, before there arose any great need for the charity infant school, by elementary public schools with free tuition. Consult: Gill, Systems of Education (Boston, 18S7) ; article on '"Young Children, Education of," in Sonnenschein's ('yclopceiHn of Ediintlion (London, 1889); Wilderspin, Infant System I Limdon, 1840); id., Education of the Young (Loudon, 1840) ; Gregory, Elementary Education (London, 189.5). See. also, Ivixdergarte.n ; Na- tional Kdicatiox, Systems ok. INFECTION (Lat. infectio, a dyeing, from in/iccrc, to dye, mix, from in, in -f- favtre, to make). The condition i)roduced by the entrance into and multiplication within the "body of patho- genic micro-organisms, whether bacteria or pro- tozoa. Every infectious disease has its infectious element. I'liis element may be propagated bj' contagion from particles carried by the air, as where the virus of the disease clings to scales of epidermis in scarlet fever or smallpox; it may be propagated by contagion from fa'cal mat- ter, in which the virus is discharged, as in typhoid fever or cholera. 'hetber micro-organ- isms can be transmitted after elimination in the breath is yet uncertain. Probably they can be detached from mucous surfaces by the currents of the breath, freed by expulsive coughing. The mode of elimination of the virus from the body decides whether the disease lie contagious or not. The significance of the question of the reproduc- tion of infectious micro-organisms outside of the body is great. Drinking-water may be contami- nated with tii-phoid-fcver germs; milk may be contaminated with pus germs. The virus of some diseases may be carried by the air, as in the case of pulverized sputa of tuber- cular patients. Probably the virus of yel- low fever may be conveye<l through the atmos- phere. Actual cont.act with the agents of infec- tion, however, constitutes the chief means of in- fection. Predisposition plays a secomiary part as a factor in such causation. Race influences sus- ceptibility to disease. The size of the do.sage rf bacteria is important, a large injection pro- ducing disease where immunity to small doses exists. .uto-infeetion occurs where, in a parturient woman, for example, septicfemia occurs as a re- sult of infection of the uterus w'ith pathogenic germs which have gained entrance into the va- gina. See Immtmtv: Coxt.vciox. INFECTIOUS DISEASE. A disease which is communicated by means of bacteria or proto-
- oa which enter the body. A contagious disease
is propagated by means of virus carried from person to person upon mucus from the mouth or respiratory tract, upon scales from the skin, etc. Contagious diseases include measles, small- pox, scarlet fever, tuberculosis, etc. On the other hand, typhoid fever and cholera are not con- tagions. Tlipv ,-,re transmitted throui;h tlip use of drinking-water or food containing tlic germs of each disease. .W the diseases mentioned are infectious, including those of the contagious class. See Tnfecttox. INFEFTMENT AND SASINE. A Scotch law term, corrupted from the "feofTmcnt' and
