Child life and labour / by Margaret Alden.

  • Alden, Margaret (Margaret Pearse)
Date:
[1908]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Child life and labour / by Margaret Alden. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    (4) It allowed any two Justices of the Peace who had convicted a parent of offence against his child to take from him the right of custody of that child. (5) It provided facilities for making inquiries into suspected cases of cruelty, if necessary entering the house of the parent, which had previously been an illegal act. It is difficult to speak with moderation of the state of things that existed before the operations of the Society began to have their effect; but even so late as 1905-6 the inspectors of the Society, who are 198 in number, inquired into 38,705 cases, of which 37,213 were regarded as having justified the investigation. The number of cases in which a warning was given was 31,735, while in 2,199 cases prosecution was necessary. The need for the Society is shown by the fact that in all but seventy cases convictions were obtained. Legislation affecting the Infant. It remains in this brief sketch of legislation and reform affecting child life to say a few words • about the infant, to whom the work of the National Society has been of immense value. It is only during the last fifty years that there has been any real attempt to deal with the neglected infants of the State. The death of an infant that was obviously due to criminal neglect or ill-treatment on the part of its parents could, of course, be punished. The question of dealing with illegitimate children, which involved far and away the greatest cost in child life, remained undealt with until 1871, when restrictions were placed on the baby-farming traffic. Infant mortality which is due to ignorance is hard to combat, but for a long while even the extraordin-