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novel and pleafing; a fketth of which I 
fhall endeavour to trace. 
The gentleman who accompanied me 
to this afylum being furnifhed with a per- 
miffion from government to vifit the dif- 
ferent hofpitals of Paris, we were imme- 
diately introduced to the director of the 
efablifhment, Mr. Ombron, who with 
great complaifance gave us all the parti- 
culars which we defired.. This gentleman 
is warily animated by a fpirit of philan- 
throphy, and it is to him that the public 
js indebted beth for the new plan of the 
eftablifnment, and for the great improve. 
ments t have been made within thefe 
few years. e 
The inititution of the Hofpice de la Ma- 
ternité, which replaces that of the late 
Foundling-hofpital (Hafans trouvés), is 
compofed of two diftinét departments, the 
hing in and the fuckling, each of whith 
occupies a feparate building. 
The lying-in rooms are kept very clean 
and perfectly well aired, and they contain 
not more than fix womeneach. The num- 
ber of women contained at one time in the 
hofpital is upon an average about 200, but 
there are in general fewer in fummer than 
in winter. Pregnant women require no 
he ae 
prea e 
other recommendation to be received than 
to have pafied the eighth montb of their 
pregnancy, and to be free from infection 
of the venereal difeafe. The total number 
of women annually delivered in this hof- 
pital is 1500, which makes an average of 
four or five children daily brought into 
the world within its walls. Of thefe 1500 
vomen no more than fix or feven die an- 
nualiy, provided there is no contagious 
ciftemper. ‘There has been no puerperal 
fever this year, but laft year twelve or 
fifieen perfons were loft by this dileafe, 
A female performs the office of midwife, 
2nd the perion at prefent employed is a 
fenfible woman, and nas every appezrance 
of a good education. ‘Tiere is a feparate 
room for women «ho are in the pains of 
child-birth, and another ccntiguous for 
the moment of delivery. We found in the 
Jatier three children who had been brought 
into the world within a few minutes. 
The women who, during their confine- 
ment, are attacked by any difeale inde- 
pendant of the lying-in, are removed into 
an upper fet of rooms, where they are at- 
tended by the phyfician to the inftitution. 
The infirmary appeared to me to be lefs 
judiciovfiy conducted than any other part 
of the eftablifiment. 
The fuckling department (which is 
contigucus to the former) is by far the 
mifi confiderable: the plan ef it is very 
Expfpice de la Matzrnité. 
- [May a; 
ingenious, but I obferved that there was 
neither much order nor cleanlinefs in 
the detail. It is true that, notwithfand- 
ing-the extent of the building, it is much 
more populous in proportion than the 
other, Mothers, nurfes; childrén—al] is 
in continual motion, noife, and crying. 
This department is occupied .by four dif- 
ferent claffes of people. Firit, by the 
mothers, who, after being delivered in the 
adjoining building, are permitted to fuckie 
their infant, and are themfelves fupported 
on condition of their confenting to fuckle 
another child befides their own, which the 
inftitutton confides to their care. But of 
the number cf women annually delivered 
in the hofpital there are not above twenty 
who are willing to remain on this condi- 
tion. ‘The others prefer either to carry 
away their children, or tcleave them in the 
houfe to the care of a wet-nurfe. 
ly, all children expofed or abandoned are 
received, without exception, but in gené- 
ral, parents in abandoning their offspring 
give in to the direétor a judicial attefation 
of their name and the day of their birth; 
and it very feldom happens that a child is 
found fimply expofed at the gates of the 
holpital without any atteftation. .When 
this is the cafe, however, the child is al- 
ways received, but fearch is made after 
the perfons who brought it, and they are 
arrefted if difcovered. ‘Thirdly, a certain 
number of wet-nurfes are received into the 
‘hofpital, equal to that of the children to 
be nurfed there; but the number of the 
latter brought up in the houfe itfelf is but 
fmall in proportion to thofe who are fent 
into the country, where they are fuckled 
and taken care of under certain ftipulated 
conditions. 
come into the houfe to fuckle the children 
of others, bring their own child with 
them, and continue to nurfe it during the 
time that they remain in the houfe, fo 
that the number of children is thus‘almoft 
doubled. Thefe, as well as the women 
who come with their new bern children 
from the lying-in department, are called 
ftationary nurfes (nourices fedentaires) in 
ciftinétion from thofe in the country whom 
T have juft mentioned. ‘The total number 
of children annually born or received into 
the hofpital, and fupported at its expence, 
is between five and fix thoufand. . There 
are at all times in the houfe about two hun- 
dred and fifty children, and, reckoning in 
addition the children of the wet-nurfes, 
a total of five hundred is thus made. I 
fhould not omit mentioning, that in the 
fuckiing department there is one room apr 
propriated to the reception of the 
born 
Second. | 
Fourthly, the nurfes who ~ 
néw- 
