The Dependent Child 179 



A more striking comparison between institu- 

 tional and boarding out mortality is afforded 

 by the results obtained by the Sage Foundation 

 and the Department of Health with babies taken 

 from the marasmus ward of the N. Y. Found- 

 ling hospital.^ This ward receives only the 

 chronic cases of extreme atrophy that have al- 

 ways ended in death. In boarding out a num- 

 ber of these babies, an extra bonus was given 

 to selected women, and a doctor and a nurse 

 furnished for every ten babies. As a result 

 there was an eventual mortality of 46 per cent. 

 Thus nearlv half of the babies were saved in 

 the home who were bound to die in the institu- 

 tion. 



As expert opinion is in such wide agreement 

 upon stressing of family homes rather than the 

 institution in the care of the abandoned young, 

 it is strange that more thought and effort have 

 not been placed on the problems of boarding 

 out. The latter has not always functioned as 

 well as it should, owing to lack of proper over- 

 sight and regulation. 



1 Womw^'a Medical Journal, Jan. 1916. 



