Ancient Rome and Modern Italy 25 



imbecile. 115 The practice in modern Italy, as elsewhere, of saving 

 such a miscreation because of its possession of an immortal soul 

 would have seemed to a humane Roman an unpardonable wrong 

 to all concerned. 



The abandonment or murder of children has been a persistent 

 criminal problem with which every age has to deal wherever pov- 

 erty is rife or loose sexual relations are common. Through all the 

 Christian centuries the Church of Rome has done what it could to 

 discourage desperate mothers from doing away with their offspring. 

 Recognizing that a degree of maternal instinct can survive the ruin 

 of hope and character, the authorities have offered this natural 

 feeling a chance for at least a partial satisfaction. Without reveal- 

 ing their own identity, mothers have been able to preserve the life 

 of an illegitimate child by going by night to the entrance of a 

 foundling hospital or asylum and placing it upon a revolving shelf 

 or in an arrangement resembling a cradle, the ruota. As this turns, 

 it carries the baby through an aperture out of sight to be received 

 by the nuns of the institution and properly cared for. This simple 

 device to protect life and good name I have seen at the portals of 

 the Ospedale di Santo Spirito in Rome, although it may now be no 

 longer in use. 116 Through this invention for the preservation of 

 secrecy and anonymity children up to the age of seven have re- 

 ceived a convent mother in lieu of their natural one. At Naples, 

 however, the authorities in charge of an asylum had, at last, to 

 close an aperture of eight square inches, because there were so 

 many attempts made to squeeze through it children who had 

 grown too large. Though naked and well oiled, some of the vic- 

 tims were extracted crippled for life. 117 As a matter of fact, what- 

 ever be the reason, infanticide has been, it would seem, exceedingly 

 rare among the modern Italians. 118 



It may not be generally known among classical students that the 

 opportunity for parents to rid themselves of an infant with a mini- 

 mum amount of inhumanity may have ancient precedent. In the 

 excerpts made by Paulus from the dictionary of Festus we read of 

 a so-called Columna Lactaria at Rome, where, if our interpretation 

 be correct, babies might be put to be taken and reared as found- 

 lings. 119 



Quite as some foresighted parents did in Greek and Roman days, 

 when an unwanted child was exposed to die or to be found, as 



