On the Hospitalization of Children: An Historical Approach
Andrew D. Hunt M.D.1
1 Dean, College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University, East Lansing
Societal interest in infants' and children's welfare in the English-speaking world appears to have originated in London in the mid-l8th century, at which time the evidence suggests a general lack of concern for the life of a child. Mortality within the first five years of life was upward of 75%. "Children were regarded as a necessary evil and except in time of alarming and grave illness were little considered. Evidence of neglect, cruelty and infanticide is so abundant that we are forced to believe that at times children were not even considered necessary."1 Although artificial feeding usually resulted in infants' deaths, women of wealth and social stature rarely nursed their babies, but rather sent them away to be cared for by wet nurses who, in turn, frequently had to sacrifice their own infants in order that they might feed those of their employers. The "dropping" of infants, either on doorsteps of wealthy families, or onto dung heaps to starve or freeze to death, was a common practice and rarely noticed.
It is of interest that leadership to alter this situation was taken, not by a physician, but by a shipwright named Thomas Coram (1668-1751). He spent much of his life in Taunton, Massachusetts, to which he gave a valuable parish library. He retired from sea service in 1719 and, after having acted as a trustee for the embryonic Oglethorpe Colony in Georgia, returned to England where he was appalled by the condition of infants and children, and took a practical interest.
Submitted on April 2, 1974
Accepted on June 17, 1974
