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6
infants, the verdict "found dead without marks of violence" was
recorded, there were only 11 deaths of male infants so returned. That
so many infants should perish in this manner, under circumstances likely
to excite the most shocking suspicions against parents or guardians, is
much to be lamented. That in numerous cases these deaths cannot he
ascribed to criminality, seems proved by the fact, that deaths from suffocation
in bed are far more frequent during cold weather. Children are
covered up under the bed clothes, in such a manner that no air can reach
them; they die of asphyxia, poisoned by breathing over again the
fouled air from their own lungs. To this cause is no doubt superadded
in some cases, the torper of cold. But these deaths ought to convey in
the most emphatic manner, the lesson that even tender infants cannot
live without a free supply of pure air, as well as warmth. These deaths
prove most clearly the pernicious error of the too common practice of
wrapping up children in such a manner as to exclude the external air.
I earnestly trust that the publicity given to these Reports may be the
means of rescuing many children from this frequent and frightful form
of violent death.