On the mortality of infants in foundling institutions, and generally, as influenced by the absence of breast milk / by C.H.F. Routh.

  • Routh, C. H. F. (Charles Henry Felix), 1822-1909.
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the mortality of infants in foundling institutions, and generally, as influenced by the absence of breast milk / by C.H.F. Routh. 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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    Nearly all writers, who have endeavoured to explain the mortality of foundlings, have usually and chiefly attributed it to want of hreast-milk; alluding, as examples, to the hospitals of Paris, Lyons, Kheims, a place called X, aud Parthenay. Thus, in Lyons and Parthenay, where the children are suckled at the breast, the mortality is respectively 33*7 and 35; whereas, in Paris, Kheims, and X, where artificial feeding is either extensively or very generally employed, the mortality is re- spectively 50-3, 63-9, and 80 per cent. Many years ago, Sir Hans Sloane, in a letter to the Vice-President of the Foundling Hospital, quoted at length in Mr. Brownlow’s Memoranda of that hospital (pp. 215-16), gives the following results :— Date of admission. Total. To wet nurses. Deaths. To dry nurses. Deaths. March 5, 1741 .. 30 . 2 . . — . ,. 28 , .. 15 April 17, 1741 .. 30 . 7 . ] . . 22 .. 11 May 8, 1741 .. 30 . . 17 . . 4 . . 13 , .. 8 — — — — .— 90 26 5 63 34 Six of the latter were taken out. The mortality of the former was 19*2 per cent., against 53*9 of the latter. Facts like these appear certainly to tell very strongly against dry nursing. It is usual to add the figures of mortality in other hospitals, whose circumstances are often very diflerent; and, these figures being very heavy, the inference is, that these children have died chiefly from want of breast-milk. Thus, the following may be taken as an example:— Mortality in Foundling Hospitals in different parts of the World. Per cent. Dublin 91 Marseilles 90 St. Petersburgh 40 Florence 40 Barcelona 60 Paris 80 All France 60 » 75 Dublin 48.7 Paris 50 Mean 63.4 Period. Close of last century. 1824 1818 1750-60 18eS8 A more recent and succinct account by M, De Watteville, who has very ably treated the whole subject, includes all France, and gives the following results.