Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 May 1894 — WASTE OF CHILD LIFE. [ARTICLE]

WASTE OF CHILD LIFE.

Frightful Slaughter of Neglected Little Ones in the Cities. Dr. H. W. Chapin has an article in the Forum which forcibly brings to our comprehension the waste of child life in great centres of population. He shows that the bodies of 8,042 children under five years of age were taken to the Morgue in this city last year, and that 2,851 of them were buried in Potters’ Field. These children were victims of poverty and ignorance, and they represent but a small proportion of last year’s or any other year’s victims of these causes. Dr. Chapin has made a study of 600 child cases in the New York Post Graduate Hospital. The condition at birth in 508 instances was good, bad in twenty, fair in twelve and unknown in sixty. This showing demonstrates that even among those who are forced to resort to public hospitals when sickness appears in their families, most of the sickness of infants is not due to inherited causes, but that it is acquired—presumably from faulty conditions of life, neglect and bad surroundings. That environment is stronger than hereditary has been proven in the cases of twenty children received at St. Christopher’s home some years ago. They were taken from tenement houses, and like most neglected children had a low degree of physical development. Many were scrofulous with a continuous tendency to skin eruptions. For two or three years they required constant medical oversight. Every year, however, has shown an improvement in their condition, and now, eight years after they were taken from the tenements and given proper care, they are apparently well. Good food and intelligent care have made them healthy. It having been established that poverty and ignorance kill more children than inherited disease the duty of the community becomes obvious. First the work of education is necessary. Parents should be lifted out of ignorance and taught to properly care for their children. The kindred curse of poverty is largely the result of another form of ignorance that we call improvidence. The fearful waste of child life must be checked by lifting up the parents, by teaching them to care for their offspring properly, and by bringing them to a plane of industry and provident forethought. —[New York Mail and Express.