270

FOUNDLING HOSPITALS.

until, at length, finding the evil daily increase, they de-clared it to be murder, without giving suflicient thoughtto the consequences of such an edict; for to them, theperpetrators, Dr. Garth’s verse 3 might with propriety beapplied.

“ Frail nymphs oft by abortion aim,

“ To lose a substance, ami preserve a name.”

And thereby the effect of infanticide and suicide was,doubtless often the consequence; or else it drove the un-fortunate parent upon the certain commission of murder onher own offspring.

It should be remarked, that the humane Tacitus con-sidered the ancient Germans as deviating from Romanmanners, in their considering child-murder as a crime. Andalso w’here he speaks of the peculiarities of Jewish customs,he mentions the same thing. Dionysius Halicarnassus be-stows a like praise upon the aborigines, for the samefeeling.

We should have noticed that in all Greece , except atBoeotian Thebes * the exposure of children was permittedand very common ; w'herefore the historians mention thecontrary as a foreign but notorious custom. Strabo , 5 onthis account praises the Egyptians, and JElian 6 eulogises,the Thebans , whose laws were calculated to prevent thekilling or exposure of children. Romulus, at Rome, en-deavoured to restrain it; his order is found in the twelvetables of Roman laws: however, it is said as population,luxury, and scarcity increased, it had become customaryfor parents to expose such of their children as theycould not maintain. Many deposited with them rings, jewels,robes, and other costly ornaments; and those who werepoorer, things of little value, which were given, it is pre-sumed to induce those who found them to be kind to themand to preserve them. This custom still remains in manyplaces where children carried to foundling hospitals, areaccompanied by tokens which are easily preserved ; it is,we understand, the case at the Spedale degV Innocenti ofFlorence , 7 where a piece of lead is impressed by a numberhung round the infant’s neck, in such a manner that it may

3 Dispensary. 4 Aristot. Polit. vii. p. 092.

5 I.ib. xvii. p. 1380* edit. Amstel. 3707.

6 Vari?; Histor. ii. 7. p. 69 *

7 13nl<Jiuger*s Nenea Magaz. fur Aerate, xii. 2. p. 154.