212 



SANTIAGO. 



and be known only to the "partera" who assists her. Thus, a universal style in the dresses 

 of females which enables them to conceal pregnancy, knowledge that they may give birth to a 

 child unknown to acquaintances, and the facility with which infants may afterwards be disposed 

 of, are all so many barriers broken down from before the strongholds of morality. There is no 

 novelty in an event occurring three times in every two days, and no one thinks to inquire 

 whose is the little stranger turned within the wall ; a nurse is provided for it, and there ends 

 gossip or thought of its origin. Its own mother may perhaps pass from the turn-stile to the 

 door, and, offering herself as a nurse, receive her child again ; but now she obtains pay for 

 the nourishment which nature had actually provided. 



The building being wholly inadequate to accommodate the nearly TOO in its charge, who of 

 necessity are accompanied by their nurses, very few are retained on the premises. Nearly all 

 are, therefore, given to women from the country, who are supposed to have at their control 

 sustenance suitable for infants, or to others in the city who have, or pretend to have, lost their 

 own children ; and in the latter case, there is no doubt many poor mothers are included, as has 

 just been intimated. To prove themselves entitled to the salary allowed by the hospital, they 

 are required to present the children on pay-day ; but who, after the lapse of a month, could 

 recognise an infant perhaps not six hours old when brought to the house, and which had been 

 taken away within even a shorter time thereafter? On the 1st of January, 1850, there were 629 

 children at the expense of the establishment, and its operations during the two following years 

 are shown in the subjoined table : 



Casa de Expositos. 



This would leave 684 in charge of the institution on the 1st of January, 1852. But 520 

 children annually abandoned by parents in a city of less than 90,000 inhabitants, or about one 

 for every two marriages, and one out of every ten births ! 



The institution owns a large estate, yielding it $16,000 per annum; receives $1,000 from 

 the diezmo (tithes) ; and has other funds, the interest of which increases its income to about 

 $24,000; nearly all of which is paid at the rate of $2.50 per month to nurses, who are scat- 

 tered through the city and adjoining country. Until there is a reformation, not only in the 

 mode of paying curates, but also in the practices of them and others, it is to be apprehended 

 that there will be no diminution in the number employed. 



As guardians of the public health, there is a medical faculty for the examination of all candi- 

 dates who propose to practise in Chile, whether graduates of other recognised institutions or 

 not ; and another board, whose duty it is to vaccinate gratuitously all who may offer. Some of 



