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18
England excels all other countries in Europe in the
proportion of deaths of infants under one year of age which
result from suffocation in bed with their parents. During
the recent 10 vears the number of such deaths have exceeded
15,000. It is impossible to believe that a large number of
these deaths are not due to criminal neglect on the part of
parents. Although most cases of overlying are of an accidental
nature, yet there are many cases in which the death occurred
under such conditions of carelessness or reckless indifference
to the infants' welfare or of culpable neglect of precautions
during intoxication, that, in the opinion of a high authority,
the parents should be committed for trial for manslaughter.
This is done in a few cases in England, but it is difficult to
prove gross and culpable neglect, and convictions have seldom
followed.
The Clergy and Ministers of all denominations might do
much in the way of warning poor and ignorant parents against
the risk of taking their infants into bed with them, and the
question arises as to whether it should not be declared to be
an obligation on every parent to provide a cradle or cot for
the infant's use.