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f 70
METHUDS OF SOCIAL REFORM.
AJ a remedy for this ad state of affairs, Dr. Ransome,
Mr. T. C. HorsfaII, and various members of the NanchWer
and Salford Sanitary Association, advocate the establishment
of day nurseries, where the mothers, while going to the mills,
may deposit their young children under good supervision. If
nothing elso be done to mitigate t’he fate of iofants, such
nurseries are simply indispensable; but surely they form a mere
palliative, and if they came into general use would tend to
incroase the evil they are intended to mitigate. While such
institutions remained fow in number, and mere personally
inRpocted by mombcrs of tho Sanitary Association, all would
no doubt be dono which care and medical science could
RUggQSt, Even under the most painstaking inspection, much
is to bo feared from ths assembling of many infants daily in
t,he snmo room, owing to the extraordinary facility with which
infectious diseases are spread among the very young. The
evidenco given beforo the Committee above referred to seems
to be conclusivo on t,his point;, and the following are tho
remarks of the Committee in their Report (p. vi.) :
“As regnrds children in charitable institations, is clenrly it ascertained
that tho ng~rrgntion of them in crowded rooms is so fatal to infant lifo
tlat it, hay bocomc necessary to remorc thcm into various Homos. It
was so with tho Foundliug Hospital rlcarly a century ago. Tho samo
hns Lecn ohscr.r-cd in tllo FIome in Great Cor;lm Street ; so that now thy
are pnt out bp twos and tllrces in other places. A similar system esists in
Fmnco ; fnr whilo thc children werc aggregutcd in foundling hospitals,
it was found thut from i0 to 80 per ccnt. died; and nom that they are
plncod out singly with nurses, and properly inspected, the mortality has
been reduced from 20 to 30 per cent.n
It would appear, then, that frequently the only chance of
saving infant life is the reverse of that intended by the
Sanitary Association-namely, to isolate the children. But if
such nurseries are to be of much good they must be hundreds
in number, and ther would then inevitably become the scenes
of fearful abuses. Tho law provides no inspectio:1 or regulation
for them of any kind, and institutions est.ablished for the protection
and cnre of infants are, curiousiy enough, expressly
exempted from the provisions of the Protection of Infant Life