Ch. iii. in Russia. 311 



would probably appear to be fairly attributable 

 to the foundling hospital ; as none would be so 

 unreasonable as to lay the loss of these certain 

 victims to death to the account of a philanthropic 

 institution, which enriches the country from year 

 to year with an ever-increasing number of healthy, 

 active, and industrious burghers.* 



It appears to me, however, that the greatest 

 part of this premature mortality is clearly to be 

 attributed to these institutions, miscalled philan- 

 thropic. If any reliance can be placed on the ac- 

 counts which are given of the infant mortality in 

 the Russian towns and provinces, it would ap- 

 pear to be unusually small. The greatness of it, 

 therefore, at the foundling hospitals, may justly 

 be laid to the account of institutions which en- 

 courage a mother to desert her child, at the very 

 time when of all others it stands most in need of 

 her fostering care. The frail tenure by which an 

 infant holds its life will not allow of a remitted 

 attention, even for a few hours. 



The surprising mortality which takes place at 

 these two foundling hospitals of Petersburg and 

 Moscow, which are managed in the best possible 

 manner, (as all who have seen them with one con- 

 sent assert,) appears to me incontrovertibly to 

 prove, that the nature of these institutions is not 

 calculated to answer the immediate end that they 

 have in view ; which I conceive to be the preser- 

 vation of a certain number of citizens to the state 

 who might otherwise perhaps perish from poverty 



* View of the Russian Empire, vol. ii. b. iii. p. 201. 



