Homepage
Login
Profile
BookClubs
dmBox
Read Ebook: The Elements of Child-protection by Engel Sigmund Paul Eden Translator
Font size:
Background color:
Text color:
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page
Ebook has 844 lines and 99267 words, and 17 pages
PAGE PREFACE v
GENERAL PART
CERTAIN POPULATION PROBLEMS
Child-Protection and the Population Question--Fertility of the Lower Classes--The Tendency of Evolution 1
STATISTICAL PROBLEMS OF POPULATION
Miscarriages, Premature Births, and Still-Births--Mortality--The Productive Age and the Unproductive Age--Classification of the Population according to Age--The Excess of Women--Marriage-- Illegitimate Sexual Relations 11
CHILD MORTALITY
Statistical Data--Certain Contributory Causes--The Chief Causes of Infant Mortality--The Great Number of Children--Child Mortality in the Towns--The Effect of Housing Conditions--The Effect of Age--Time of Birth, Seasons, and Meteorological Conditions 17
THE QUALITY OF THE POPULATION; ARTIFICIAL SELECTION AND EDUCATION
Natural Selection and Artificial Selection--The Interests of the Future Generation--Inheritance and Education--Nature of Education--Character of the Child--Limits of Educability--The Aim of Education--Good Example--Confidence and Love--Reward and Punishment--Education by the Parents--Education in different Social Classes--Parents, School, Environment--The Tendency of Evolution 25
PROS AND CONS OF CHILD-PROTECTION
THE EXECUTIVE INSTRUMENTS OF CHILD-PROTECTION
Introductory--Local Governing Bodies--The Community at large-- The Central Government--A Unified System of Laws for Child-Protection--A Centralised Authority for Child-Protection-- Private and Official Activities--The Medical Profession--Women 58
SPECIAL PART
Introductory--Parental Authority and Marriage--History of Marriage--Child-Protection and the Family--Maternal Authority-- Fiduciary Character of Parental Authority--The Elementary Principles of State Interference with Parental Authority 71
MARRIAGE AND HEREDITY
Heredity in General--Inheritance of Diseases--Individual Diseases--The Age of the Parents--The Marriage of Near Kin-- Disease in the Parents from the Legal Standpoint--Divorce-- Marriage-Prohibitions in Past Times--Proposed Reforms-- Objections--The Right View--How to Effect Reforms--The Tendency of Evolution 77
THE PROTECTION OF ILLEGITIMATE CHILDREN
The Legal Position of the Illegitimate Child--Reasons for these Legal Disabilities--Advantages and Disadvantages of Illegitimate Birth--Abortion, Premature Birth, Still-Birth--Childbirth in Unmarried Mothers--Causes of the Great Mortality of Illegitimate Children--Criminality in the Illegitimate--Illegitimacy and Prostitution--Occupation in Relation to Illegitimacy--The Different Classes of the Illegitimate--Illegitimacy and Child-Protection--The Tendency of Evolution--A Radical Reform 90
LIMITED POWERS OF MINORS, AND GUARDIANSHIP
Limited Powers of Minors--The Tendency of Evolution--Nature of Guardianship--Guardianship of Poor Children--Guardianship of Illegitimate Children--The Defects of Individual Guardianship-- Nature of Official and Institutional Guardianship--Advantages of Official and Institutional Guardianship--Objections to Collective and Institutional Guardianship--These Objections Answered--The Tendency of Evolution--Certain Civil Laws which are of Importance in Relation to Child-Protection 106
CHILD-PROTECTION BEFORE, DURING, AND IMMEDIATELY AFTER BIRTH
Introductory--Before Birth--During Birth--After Birth--The Insurance of Motherhood--The Tendency of Evolution 118
INFANT-LIFE PROTECTION
Introductory--Advantages of the Natural Feeding of Infants-- History of Artificial Feeding--Causes of the Failure to Suckle--Wet-Nurses--Cow's Milk--Other Methods of Artificial Feeding--Institutional Care of Infants--The Cr?che--Proposed Reforms--Radical Solution of the Problem 125
THE CARE OF FOUNDLINGS, WET-NURSING, AND BABY-FARMING
Terminology--History of the Care of Foundlings--The Latin System and the Germanic System--Some Modern Methods for the Care of Foundlings--Foundling Hospitals, Wet-Nursing, and Baby Farms-- Institutional Care versus Family Care--Supervision of Family Care--Subsidiary Aims of the Care of Foundlings--The Tendency of Evolution 141
WOMEN'S LABOUR AND CHILD-LABOUR
History of Child Labour--Diffusion of Child Labour--The Causes of Child Labour--Women's Labour--The Consequences of Child Labour--The Consequences of Women's Labour--Regulation of Child Labour--Regulation of Women's Labour--Reform of Apprenticeship-- Enforcement of such Regulations--Objections to the Protective Regulation of the Labour of Women and Children--These Objections Answered--Radical Solution of the Problem--The Tendency of Evolution 155
THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN AGAINST DISEASE
Introductory--The Health of Proletarian Children--Causes of the Movement for the Protection of Proletarian Children-- Institutions--Country Holiday Funds and Open-air Schools-- Proposed Reforms--Need for Enlightenment--The Tendency of Evolution 178
THE PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Importance of the Public Elementary School--Methods of Instruction--The General Obligation of School Attendance--The Purpose of the Elementary School--Instruction versus Education--Moral Instruction--General Culture--Individuality-- Beauty--Knowledge--Science--Home-Work--The Exclusion of certain Children--Rewards and Punishments--The Constitutional Element-- Parents and the School--Sexual Education--Religious and Moral Instruction--Physical Education--Manual Training--Preparatory Schools--Supervised Playgrounds for Children -- Increasing Importance of the Public Elementary School--Feeding of School Children--Care of Young Persons after they Leave School--The Tendency of Evolution 185
CRIMINALITY IN YOUTH
PENAL METHODS
Conditions of To-day--Proposed Reforms--Penal Methods in the United States of America 243
PROSTITUTION
The Causes of Prostitution--Prostitution and Child-Protection 249
PUNISHABLE OFFENCES AGAINST CHILDREN
The Two Groups--Infanticide--Abortion--The Protection of Feminine Chastity--Maltreatment of Children--Suggested Reforms 254
INDEX 271
ERRATUM
GENERAL PART
CERTAIN POPULATION PROBLEMS
No national entity can resist the attacks of others if its numerical strength is comparatively small. If a contest takes place between two nations whose numerical strength is approximately equal, the healthier of the two will gain the victory.
Even in prehistoric times a minimal degree of Child-Protection was indispensable to tribal existence. To rear children diminished, indeed, the quantity of wealth available to maintain the life of the parents, and consequently rendered even more difficult than before the struggle with the hostile forces of nature. None the less, it was absolutely essential to rear a minimal number of children. A sufficient number of boys must be reared to maintain the ranks of the warriors needed for the protection of the tribe against the attacks of its neighbours; and since tribal wars were unceasing, the number requisite to replace those who fell in battle was considerable; girls also must be reared in numbers sufficient to be the mothers of the required number of warriors. But it was against the tribal interest that more children than these should come into the world; and it was desirable that superfluous infants should perish.
The most important factors in human evolution are the quantity and the quality of individual human beings. Until quite recently it is only upon quantity of population that any stress has been laid: the quality of the population has been ignored; being either taken for granted, or regarded as dependent upon chance conditions. The problems of population were not recognised as quantitative and qualitative, but were believed to be quantitative merely. Both Socialism and Child-Protection have intimate associations alike with the quantitative and with the qualitative problems of population. Both Socialism and Child-Protection exert a powerful influence upon the quantity and the quality of human beings; and conversely these latter react no less powerfully upon Socialism and Child-Protection.
The leading aim of Child-Protection is to prevent the death of children before they attain an age at which they become competent to contribute directly to the welfare of society. The next most important aim of Child-Protection is to ensure that the individual whose life has been preserved shall not become useless or dangerous to society. These leading aims may be pithily summarised in the following terms: "the prevention of a high mortality-rate," and "the prevention of a high criminality-rate." The main factor of a high mortality-rate is excessive mortality in childhood; and the main factor of a high criminality-rate is excessive criminality in childhood.
The following conception is dominant in France. It is sad but true that the number of births hardly shows any excess over the number of deaths--nay, that in certain years the births are fewer than the deaths; hence it happens that the population of the other states of Europe increases much more rapidly than the population of France. It is essential that something should be done to counteract this difference, by which the position of France as one of the great Powers of Europe may ultimately be endangered. Since all the laws and regulations which have been instituted with a view to increasing the birth-rate have remained fruitless, some new method must be found of bringing about a more marked excess of births over deaths. Since excessive mortality among children is the principal cause of a high death-rate, the State and the community must take all the steps in their power to reduce child mortality to a minimum.
The lower the type of life, the greater is the insecurity of existence; and it is necessary that this should be counterbalanced by greater vigour of the forces of reproduction, and a consequent increase in the number of the offspring. Thus differences between the different species have a great influence upon the procreativeness of these species, so that there is a direct causal connection between the quality of a species and the number of the individuals of which it is made up. But it remains in dispute whether the rise in the quantity, directly gives rise to a decline in the quality; whether, within the limits of an individual species, the quantitative differences between the individuals making up that species are of importance; whether, within the limits of a single species, the individual members are more fertile in proportion as they stand at a lower level in development; and, finally, whether the fertility of the individuals of any species diminishes as the species advances in its evolution.
As regards the fertility of the human species, the decisive influences are not physiological, but social. The view that higher brain development or prolonged intellectual activity restricts fertility has been rightly contested. Undoubtedly, powerful intellectual activity tends to inhibit the sexual impulse, but this is no less true of great physical exertions. The causes of the high birth-rate among the lower classes of the population are the following:--
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page