Infant mortality : its causes and remedies.

Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Infant mortality : its causes and remedies. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    A clergyman, holding a living in the suburb of a manufacturing town, tells us that, appalled by the extreme youth of the couples who come to him to be married, he has tried to prove to his male parishioners the folly and wickedness of early marriages, but that his arguments have failed to produce any effect on men, who avow that they marry to have the benefit of the wages of their wives and children, not scrupling to add that the more of the latter the former can give birth to, the longer the period during which they, the fathers, shall enjoy the advantage of their earnings. Mrs. Whitehead, from whose letter we have also previously quoted, speaking of the upper valley of the Irwell, where a man earns from £1 to £2 per week, says many married women there work in the mills, because the husbands regard it as so much loss of money, week by week, if the wives remain at home; and both she and Mrs. Evans agree that in this fact is to be found the chief explanation of the terrible waste of infant life, which seems equally to disgrace the districts where wages are low, and those where they are high. Could husbands be made to maintain their wives and children, this cause of infant mortality would cease to operate. But there is yet another cause of infant mortality among legiti- mate children, and that is the unlimited nature of a man's so-called drunk, and sent her out to sell chips. She was only absent about five minutes, and her father then sent her for a piat of ale. She was not five minutes away, but her father said she had been two hoiirs away, and then seized her by the hair and dashed her against the fireplace. He next put his leg on her stomach, put a box of matches down her breast and set fire to them. She at once got hold of them with her hands, as they were sticking to her breast, and pulled them out. She was not very much burned, but her breast was blistered. —Superintendent Kehoe : How did you get those black eyes? Witness: My father hit me with a bottle.—Bridget Keefe was then called, and said, in answer to Superintendent Kehoe, that the prisoner was her husband. He did not help her nor her family. She had had nothing from him for two months ; on the contrary, she had to give him money. She further said she had to work for her living, and did not see the assault, as she was at work at the time. She would rather get rid of her husband, because she would do better without him. Some time ago he kicked her severely, so that she lost for a time the use of her ^mbs. The prisoner, when asked what he had to say, replied that he was drunk and knew nothing about it.—Mr. Brancker: You have heard what your wife has said, that you wiU do nothing for your famUy. You are a great scamp.—Prisoner : Yes, sir.—Mr. Brancker : You are a perfect disgrace to humanity. Such conduct as yours is almost inconceivable. The utmost we can do is to send you to gaol for six months with hard labour, and that we certainly shall do. The prisoner was then removed from the dock.