Observations on some of the causes of infanticide / by George Greaves.

  • Greaves, George.
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on some of the causes of infanticide / by George Greaves. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    MANCHESTER STATISTICAL SOCIETY. Observations on some of the Causes of Infanticide. By George Greaves, M.R.C.S., &c. [Read January 14th, 1863.] An opinion, frequently of late expressed by those who ought to know the truth, has gained pretty general credence, that child- murder and the cognate offences are becoming more frequent in this country, and that, numerous as are the cases which are detected, those which escape discovery are still more numerous. It is no part of my present purpose to inquire into the truth of this belief. Were it shown that such crimes are even less frequent than they were ten or twenty years since, the thoughts which I wish to present to the Society would retain all their gravity. And I am less anxious to prove the correctness of the opinion, so far as it has reference to acts hitherto recognised as criminal, because I believe myself to be in a position to prove that, in forms not so recognised, either by the law or by public opinion, prolicide* prevails to a fearful extent, and that society, by some of its customs, and still more by the want of sound principles, which produces those customs, not very indirectly sanctions, and even instigates, the commission of the offences which it occasionally punishes with great severity. The consideration of the subject will, in short, if I am not very much mistaken, conduct us to the belief that there is, more or less per- t * Prolicide, the criminal destruction of offspring, includes Foeticide and Infanticide.