BABY INCUBATORS.

Waikato Argus, Volume II, Issue 112, 27 March 1897, Page 1 (Supplement)

BABY INCUBATORS.

* \Vi£ have from time to time seen wonderful accounts of " baby incubators " in American papers, but have regarded them as " Yankee yarns." But according to an artie'e in the Strand Magazine by Mr J. VV. Smith such " incubators " have been in actual and efficient use in several French towns for some time back, and one is about to be established in London. The "incubator" is intended for babies prematurely born. In Franco one baby in seven is so bom, and under ordinary conditions only a small proportion live. But the great majority survive if put into the incubator. It is the invention of Dr. Alexander Lion, of Nice, wbure the first incubator was installed three years ago. In that time he has reared 187 out or 185 babies committed to his care, all of whom would have died but for the incubator. In Paris one has been in operation for about twelve months, and ouc of 6'2 babies received only 11 died. " Baby hatchers " are now in full working order in Bordeaux, Marseilles, and Lyons, as well as Paiis and Nice, flitlierto no charge has been made for treating the infants, the cost having been defrayed by charging inquisitive visitors fivepence per head. In one year over 50,000 visitors inspected the Parisian institution. This latest device of modern seient tic philanthropy consists of something; like a small lieu-cojp, in which tbere is placed a mattress upmi spring wire suspenders. Oa this the baby is laid, and is kept at uniform temperature by a spiral pipe through wh eh a current of wat m water is continually run. The water is heated by a lamp placed under the boiler on the right-baud side of the baby coop, while the thermometer inside regulates the atmosphere. Every two hours the babies ate taken out of their little coops into th; feeding-room, where they are supplied with their necessary allowance of woman's milk. Children that are two or three months before their time are fed through the nose by a silver spoon. The temperature of the baby-coop, and also of the feedingroom, is very high. In the incubator the temperature is kept to thirty-seven degrees Centigrade, but in the feedingroom it is reduced to twenty-five degrees. Otherwise the nurses could not stand it. Babies who are full-grown belore birth should weigh six or seven pounds, but the baby-hatchers reckon that they can bring the child forward so long as it does not weigh less than from two pounds three ounces. Babies only weighing one pouud rarely survive, even with the utmost care.