whole batch baptised on any one day have the
same christian name. All these circumstances
are duly noted down in the great registry of
the hospital, each entry having its own number
for that year. A little ivory counter is then
attached by a thin coloured tape round the
child's arm: black tape for the boys, red tape
for the girls: on which counter on one side
is engraved the date of the year, and on the
opposite side the number which designates it
in the registry. A card is given to the person
who brought the child, on which is the same
number and date, and at any future time the
friends, on producing that card, may reclaim that
child. The first step after admission is to have
the child very carefully examined. It is taken
to a room, stripped, and then a note is made as
to any peculiarities; it is weighed, and the
weight registered; any marks or deformities
are put on record; if it is affected with
any disease, it is removed to the appropriate
ward. A wet-nurse is appointed to it, and it
becomes a denizen of the establishment for the
next two months.

A large number of wet-nurses are always
applying to be engaged: chiefly, indeed nearly
always, from the villages in the country. The
only care taken respecting them is as to health,
which is rigorously investigated, to an extent
and a minuteness which English women would
hardly submit to. Many of the women are
far from young, and many have, perhaps,
suckled their own children for many months,
and weaned them, before they apply for an
engagement. They are clothed and entirely
maintained during the time they remain, and
receive fifteen kopecks a day—about sixpence
English money—and return to their own homes
with their nurslings, receiving three roubles
a month (ten shillings) for the first year, and
six for the second, and all subsequent years,
till the child is fourteen years old. The head
officer of the village where they reside is obliged
to keep his eye upon them; he sees that the
child is living and is properly brought up;
and pays them the stipend. The child has a
stock of clothes supplied on leaving the hospital,
but not afterwards. At the age of fourteen it
is brought back to the authorities, and bound
to some person, either to be taught a trade, or
as a servant; but none of the boys are brought
up for the army or navy; if they ever find their
way into either service, they do so afterwards of
their own free choice.

On our asking if it ever happened that a
mother who had sent her baby to the hospital
applied and was engaged as a wet-nurse to her
own offspring, we were told that probably such
things occasionally happened; but it would
always be doubtful whether the mother would
be appointed by chance to suckle her own child,
or would even see her own child, while in the
hospital. They take no especial means to
prevent it, and the chances may now and then be
in the mother's favour, and she might be
receiving the public pay for bringing up her own
child.

The wet-nurses are very abundantly fed whilst
in the hospital; in proportion, however, to their
previous habits of life. An English wet-nurse
in a private family will expect meat meals
two or three times a day, and from one to
three pints of porter; but a Russian peasant
scarcely ever tastes meat, and lives chiefly on
dark chocolate-coloured rye bread, on tea, and
vegetables. We inspected the kitchens, the
dining-rooms for the nurses, and the provision
stores. They have an excellent nourishing soup
twice a day, a very large and unlimited supply
of rye bread, and a sort of gruel of meat.
They have a dinner with meat on ordinary days,
and fish on fast days, and there are from two to
three fast days a week in the Russian Church,
besides Lent. But many of these peasant
women refuse the meat; they have never been
used to it, and dislike it. They have extra
drinks of a sort of fermented rye, slightly acid,
which they take when thirsty, at discretion.
They have also tea, and, once a day, they have a
mug of beer, of a light and wholesome quality.
Occasionally, for a day or two, the admission of
babies may have been larger than the number of
wet-nurses, and they are obliged to put two
babies to one nurse, temporarily; then they
always select those who will not refuse meat,
and also give them an extra allowance both of
meat and of beer.

The advantages and disadvantages of foundling
hospitals have often been discussed, the
encouragement to immorality being set against
the preservation of human life. As it is, the
loss of life is enormous, for it is calculated
that one-fourth of the children brought to the
Moscow and to the St. Petersburg Foundling
Hospitals die before the first year; but this is
not so large a proportion as are said to die in
London and Liverpool among the children born
there. Certainly, taking into consideration the
habits of the English peasant class, or of the
lower orders in large manufacturing towns, the
ignorance as to the management of children, the
dirt, the neglect, the bad feeding, and the system
of quieting drugs and drams, there can be no
doubt that the infants in these large Russian
foundling hospitals are much better off, and are
far more sensibly and carefully preserved, than
many left to the carelessness and stupidity of
their own parents. It is positively known that
a very considerable proportion of these
deserted children are born in wedlock, but extreme
poverty and the hardships of life may be a
partial excuse for the parents, and there is reason
to believe that many of these children are
reclaimed by the parents, long before they have
arrived at the age at which their connexion with
the hospital ceases. Probably the knowledge
that they may be reclaimed at any time,
induces many mothers to part with their children,
intending to reclaim them as soon as they could
afford it; but long before that time arrives,
they have learned to do without them, and have
ceased to care for them. The encouragement to
immorality is undoubtedly considerable, though
the system supersedes the crime of infanticide.