The Dependent Child 169 



It is only necessary to glance at some of 

 the methods employed, to understand why re- 

 sults have been so unsatisfactory. Many years 

 ago needy children were sent to poor-houses, 

 with or without their parents as the case might 

 be. This plan worked badly; subsequently, 

 they were boarded out in a careless, haphazard 

 manner. The old baby-farming experience at 

 once comes to mind, where an ignorant woman, 

 liying in squalor, took as many babies to board 

 as she could accommodate, with a sick and death 

 rate that was appalling. The late Dr. Elisha 

 Harris, once reporting on this subject, stated 

 that in New York, from 1854 to 1859, about 

 1000 infants were boarded out each year, and 

 ninety out of one hundred did not live to see 

 their first birthday. As this plan was so de- 

 plorable it was determined to house this class 

 of children in large institutions where doctors 

 and nurses could hold sway and try for better 

 results. But when some years later this same 

 class of infants was collected in an institution 

 on Eandall's Island, the results with young in- 

 fants were frequently worse, as the death rate 



