extensively. The lower castes of the Natchez Indians on the lower INIississippi, Brinton {Myths of the New World [N. Y. 1808, 8vo], p. 239) says, deliberately mur- der their own children on the funeral pyre of a son or chief to gain admittance to a higher caste. But as a principal reason of the great extent of infanticide, es- pecially of female children, among savage tribes, Lub- bock (Orif/iii n/'riri/rjii/ioii.iiixlJ'riinitive Condition of Man [London', l.-<7(i. Svo J. ji. 9:i) assigns the scarcity of game, and t.if fact th.-it leninlc children are only con- sumers, and not jiroviders. " Under these circumstances, female cliildren became a source of weakness in several ways. They ate, and did not hunt; they weakened their mothers when young, and when growing up were a temptation to surrounding tribes." But whUe these reasons, which seem quite plausible at the outset, may have helped to aggravate and spread the horrid crime of infanticide, it "is no doubt true, after all, that the practice of child-murder is due to a false comprehension of the duties and relations of man towards his Maker. Perverted religious teachings have done much to fostqr this great crime among these ignorant human beings, whom Christianity is slowly but surely convincing of the error of their ways. The benign effect of Christi- anity, which was so marked on tlie legislation of the Gra?co-Roman empire in the treatment of woman, and, as a natural consequence, in the treatment likewise of her offspring, is already ajiparent also among these imcivil- ized tribes. One of the maxims of modern civilization, or, rather, of Christianity, is found among the enact- ments of the first Christian emperor, namely, Constan- tine's declaration that "the killing of a child by its fa- ther, which the Pomiieian law left unpunished, is one of the greatest crimes" ( Scliaff, Ch. Hist, iii, 114). " In- stead of encouraging the destruction of life, modern civil- ization abounds in every kind of machinery for preserv- ing it, however unsuccessful the attempt. The chief cause which, among Christian nations, leads to infanti- cide, is that of shame, which, however, operates only in the case of the child being illegitimate. The parents often incur the risk of committing the crime of murder to avoid social disgrace. In order, therefore, to appre- ciate the force of the checks put by the law on the ten- dency to infanticide, the law of bastardy, the practice of instituting foundling hospitals (q. v.). and the kind and degree of the punishments attending any attempt more or less direct to destroy the child, either before or after birth, require to be taken into account. The crim- inal law deals with the cognate offences which make up infanticide in the following manner, whether the child is legitimate or illegitimate. As regards the procuring of abortion, every woman who takes poison or other noxious thing, or uses instruments or other means to procure her miscamage, is guilty of felony, and liable to penal servitude for life, or not less than three years; and so is any person who administers poison, or uses in- struments upon the woman with such intent. Who- ever supplies drugs, poison, or instruments for the same purpose is guilty of a misdemeanor, and liable to penal servitude for three years. The concealment of birth is also a criminal offence. Whoever, after a child is born, by any secret disposition of the body, endeavors to con- ceal its birth, is guilty of a misdemeanor, and liable to imprisonment for two years. This is the offence which, perhaps, is most frequently committed, or at least made the subject of prosecution in such cases, as the attempt to establish the larger crime of murder to the satisfac- tion of a jiu-y is frequently foiled by the secret sympa- thy shown to-\vards the mother, who is presum.ed to have been the victim of seduction, or otherwise ^vrong- ed" (Chambers). But one of the greatest difficulties we are beginning to encounter in our own day, in sev- eral Christian lands, among which oiu: own is perhaps the most prominent, is the practice of abortion, only an- other form of infanticide, so general among the so-called higher classes of society. It is really alarming to the Christian man to see how extensive this great sin has
INF. JESUS, DAUGHTERS OF 578 INFANT SALVATION"
become iii this country, as well as in England. We do not deign to speak of France, for that country, in this respect at least, can scarcely make the profession of be- ing a Christian land. Houses for abortion are among us in' the best parts of the largest cities. They are kept with the apjjroval of our citizens, and are suffered to further a crime which must sooner or later prove the greatest curse that has yet befallen us. Mr. Greenwood, in his ^even Curses of London, speaks of "baby farm- ing" as "a mischief of gigantic extent." Kecent sta- tistics, and, indeed, the unblushing advertisements of abortionists, male and female, in the daily prints, pro- claim the equally fearfid extent of the crime of infanti- cide in our own land. It is high time that the clergy raise their voice against this varied form of feticide, which threatens to decimate the population in the higher classes, and is poisoning the moral sense of out- wardly respectable families. (J. H. W.)
Infant Jesus, Daughters of the Congrega- tion OK THE, is an order in the Komish Church which has its seat at Rome. It owes its origin to Anna JMo- roni, a native of Lucca, who, having come to Rome en- tirely destitute, succeeded by her industry and economy in securing a competency. In more advanced years, her charitable feelings prompted her to establish an in- stitufion where poor girls should be instructed in such female work as would enable them to earn a livelihood. A priest, Cosmus Berlintani, and other members of the clergy, approved of her plan, and afforded her much as- sistance. P«y tlicir joint efforts it was filially establish- ed as a regular institution, and in 1G73 pope Clement X acknowledgi'd tlie existence of the society, gave it by- laws, and endowed it with sundry particular privileges, under the appellation of " Daughters of the Infant Je- sus." The number of the " Daughters" allotted to each convent was fixed at 33. in commemoration of the num- ber of years Jesus li\-ed ujion earth. The novitiate lasts three years; the sis- ters make vows of poverty, chastity, and oljedience. Such as may wish to leave the convent are allowed to do so before taking the vows, but, in that case, they are to leave to the convent all they brought to it at their admis- sion. Prayers and fasts are strictly enforced. The regu- lar habit of the order con- sists of a wide, dark brown dress, and a white hood. There also existed in former times an organization whose members bore the name of " Sisters of the good Jesus ;" these, in the earlier part of the 1 oth century, were trans- formed from a lay associa- Hnbit of the Dnughters of tion into a regular order, and the Society of tlie lufant supported themselves by suit- able avocations. — Herzog, ReaJ-Ennjllopadie, vi, 015.