Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 194, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 September 1917 — Odd Facts About Babies. [ARTICLE]

Odd Facts About Babies.

Incubators for babies were used by the ancient Egyptians. In many countries the belief is held that babies born at precisely twelve midnight are endowed with occult powers. In some parts of Ireland a belt made of woman’s hair is placed about a newborn baby to keep evil spirits away. If you rock an empty cradle, you will rock a new baby into it, is a superstition that is almost everywhere prevalent. i In the British museum are specimens of babies’ feeding bottles dating to between six and seven hundred years before Christ Statisticians tell us that 26,000,000 babies are born into the world each year—about seventy a-minute, or more than one every second. Everywhere and always more boys than girls are born into the world, the proportion approximately being 1,040 male infants to 1,000 female. Twin babies are npt always born on the same day. A little while back a workman’s wife at Barrow, in Lancashire, England, gave birth on February 24 to a son. Six weeks later a girl was born. These babies, said the doctor, were undoubtedly twins, notwithstanding the unusually long period intervening between the two births.