Paris and the Parisians in 1835 (Vol. 2)Trollope, Frances Milton
History
Paris and the Parisians in 1835 (Vol. 2)
Trollope, Frances Milton
Paris (France) -- Description and travel; Paris (France) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
Like diligent sight-seers, as we are, we have been to visit the
hospital for les Enfans Trouvés. I had myself gone over every part of
the establishment several years before, but to the rest of my party it
was new--and certainly there is enough of strangeness in the spectacle
to repay a drive to the Rue d'Enfer. Our kind friend and physician,
Dr. Mojon, who by the way is one of the most amiable men and most
skilful physicians in Paris, was the person who introduced us; and his
acquaintance with the visiting physician, who attended us round the
rooms, enabled us to obtain much interesting information. But, alas!
it seems as if every question asked on this subject could only elicit
a painful answer. The charity itself, noble as it is in extent, and
admirable for the excellent order which reigns throughout every
department of it, is, I fear, but a very doubtful good. If it tend, as
it doubtless must do, to prevent the unnatural crime of infanticide,
it leads directly to one hardly less hateful in the perpetration, and
perhaps more cruel in its result,--namely, that of abandoning the
creature whom nature, unless very fearfully distorted, renders dearer
than life. Nor is it the least melancholy part of the speculation to
know that one fourth of the innocent creatures, who are deposited at
the average rate of above twenty each day, die within the first year
of their lives. But this, after all, perhaps is no very just cause of
lamentation: one of the sisters of charity who attend at the hospital
told me, in reply to an inquiry respecting the education of these
immortal but unvalued beings, that the charity extended not its cares
beyond preserving their animal life and health--that no education
whatever was provided for them, and that, unless some lucky and most
rare accident occurred to change their destiny, they generally grew up
in very nearly the same state as the animals bred upon the farms which
received them.
Peasants come on fixed days--two or three times a week, I believe--to
receive the children who appear likely to live, as nurslings; and they
convey them into the country, sometimes to a great distance from
Paris, partly for the sake of a consideration in money which they
receive, but chiefly for the value of their labour.
It is a singular fact, that during the years which immediately
followed the revolution, the number of children deposited at the
hospital was greatly diminished; but, among those deposited, the
proportion of deaths was still more greatly increased. In 1797, for
instance, 3,716 children were received, 3,108 of whom died.
I have lately heard a story, of which a child received at this
hospital is in some sort the heroine; and as I thought it sufficiently
interesting to insert in my note-book, I am tempted to transcribe it
for you. The circumstances occurred during the period which
immediately followed the first revolution; but the events were merely
domestic, and took no colour from the times.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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