carried on by different men in distinct shops, yet the foregoing
principles and methods apply to all alike. Work is done in green,
i.e. moist sand, in dry sand (the moulds being dried before being
used), and in plastic loam (which is subsequently dried). Hand and
machine moulding are practised in each, the last-named excepted.
The differences in working are those due to the various characteristics
of the different metals and alloys, which involve differences in the
sand mixtures used, in the dimensions of the pouring channels, of
the temperature at which the metal or alloy must be poured, of the
fluxing and cleansing of the metal, and other details of a practical
character. Hence the practice which is suitable for one department
must be modified in others. Many castings in steel would inevitably
fracture if poured into moulds prepared for iron, many iron castings
would fracture if poured into moulds suitable for brass, and neither
brass nor steel would fill a mould having ingates proportioned
suitably for iron.
A special kind of casting is that into “chill moulds,” adopted in a considerable number of iron castings, such as the railway wheels in the United States, ordinary tramway wheels, the rolls of iron and steel rolling mills, the bores of cast wheel hubs, &c. The chill ranges in depth from 14 in. to 1 in., and is produced by pouring a special mixture of mottled, or strong, iron against a cold iron surface, the parts of the casting which are not required to be chilled being surrounded by an ordinary mould of sand. The purpose of chill-casting is to produce a surface hardness in the metal.
The shrinkage of metal is a fact which has to be taken account of by the pattern-maker and moulder. A pattern and mould are made larger than the size of the casting required by the exact amount that the metal will shrink in cooling from the molten to the cold state. This amount varies from 18 in. in 15 in., in thin iron castings, to 18 in. in 12 in. in heavy ones. It ranges from 316 in. to 516 in. per foot in steel, brass and aluminium. Its variable amount has to be borne in mind in making light and heavy-castings, and castings with or without cores, for massive cores retard shrinkage. It is also a fruitful cause of fracture in badly proportioned castings, particularly of those in steel. Brass is less liable to suffer in this respect than iron, and iron much less than steel. (J. G. H.)
FOUNDLING HOSPITALS, originally institutions for the reception of “foundlings,” i.e. children who have been abandoned or exposed, and left for the public to find and save. The early history of such institutions is connected with the practice of infanticide, and in western Europe where social disorder was rife and famine of frequent occurrence, exposure and extensive
sales of children were the necessary consequences. Against these evils, which were noticed by several councils, the church provided
a rough system of relief, children being deposited (jactati) in
marble shells at the church doors, and tended first by the
matricularii or male nurses, and then by the nutricarii or foster-parents.[1]
But it was in the 7th and 8th centuries that definite
institutions for foundlings were established in such towns as
Trèves, Milan and Montpellier. In the 15th century Garcias,
archbishop of Valencia, was a conspicuous figure in this charitable
work; but his fame is entirely eclipsed by that of St Vincent de
Paul, who in the reign of Louis XIII., with the help of the
countess of Joigny, Mme le Gras and other religious ladies,
rescued the foundlings of Paris from the horrors of a primitive
institution named La Couche (rue St Landry), and ultimately
obtained from Louis XIV. the use of the Bicêtre for their accommodation.
Letters patent were granted to the Paris hospital
in 1670. The Hôtel-Dieu of Lyons was the next in importance.
No provision, however, was made outside the great towns; the
houses in the cities were overcrowded and administered with
laxity; and in 1784 Necker prophesied that the state would yet
be seriously embarrassed by this increasing evil.[2] From 1452
to 1789 the law had imposed on the seigneurs de haute justice the
duty of succouring children found deserted on their territories.
The first constitutions of the Revolution undertook as a state
debt the support of every foundling. For a time premiums were
given to the mothers of illegitimate children, the “enfants de la
patrie.” By the law of 12 Brumaire, An II. “Toute recherche
de la paternité est interdite,” while by art. 341 of the Code
Napoléon, “la recherche de la matérnité est admise.”
France.—The laws of France relating to this part of what is called L’Assistance Publique are the decree of January 1811, the instruction of February 1823, the decree of the 5th of March 1852, the law of the 5th of May 1869, the law of the 24th of July 1889 and the law of the 27th of June 1904. These laws carry out the general principles of the law of 7 Frimaire An V., which completely decentralized the system of national poor relief established by the Revolution. The enfants assistés include, besides (1) orphans and (2) foundlings proper, (3) children abandoned by their parents, (4) ill-treated, neglected or morally abandoned children whose parents have been deprived of their parental rights by the decision of a court of justice, (5) children, under sixteen years of age, of parents condemned for certain crimes, whose parental rights have been delegated by a tribunal to the state. Children classified under 1-5 are termed pupilles de l’assistance, “wards of public charity,” and are distinguished by the law of 1904 from children under the protection of the state, classified as: (1) enfants secourus, i.e. children whose parents or relatives are unable, through poverty, to support them; (2) enfants en dépôt, i.e. children of persons undergoing a judicial sentence and children temporarily taken in while their parents are in hospital, and (3) enfants en garde, i.e. children who have either committed or been the victim of some felony or crime and are placed under state care by judicial authority. The asylum which receives all these children is a departmental (établissement dépositaire), and not a communal institution. The établissement dépositaire is usually the ward of an hospice, in which—with the exception of children en dépôt—the stay is of the shortest, for by the law of 1904, continuing the principle laid down in 1811, all children under thirteen years of age under the guardianship of the state, except the mentally or physically infirm, must be boarded out in country districts. They are generally apprenticed to some one engaged in the agricultural industry, and until majority they remain under the guardianship of the administrative commissioners of the department. The state pays the whole of the cost of inspection and supervision. The expenses of administration, the “home” expenses, for the nurse (nourrice sédentaire) or the wet nurse (nourrice au sein), the prime de survie (premium on survival), washing, clothes, and the “outdoor” expenses, which include (1) temporary assistance to unmarried mothers in order to prevent desertion; (2) allowances to the foster-parents (nourriciers) in the country for board, school-money, &c.; (3) clothing; (4) travelling-money for nurses and children; (5) printing, &c.; (6) expenses in time of sickness and for burials and apprentice fees—are borne in the proportion of two-fifths by the state two-fifths by the department, and the remaining fifth by the communes. The following figures show the number of children (exclusive of enfants secourus) relieved at various periods:
| Year. | Number relieved. |
| 1890 | 95,701 |
| 1895 | 121,201 |
| 1900 | 138,308 |
| 1905 | 149,803 |
The droit de recherche is conceded to the parent on payment of a small fee. The decree of 1811 contemplated the repayment of all expenses by a parent reclaiming a child. The same decree directed a tour or revolving box (Drehcylinder in Germany) to be kept at each hospital. These have been discontinued. The “Assistance Publique” of Paris is managed by a “directeur” appointed by the minister of the interior, and associated with a representative conseil de surveillance. The Paris Hospice des Enfants-Assistés contains about 700 beds. There are also in Paris numerous private charities for the adoption of poor children and orphans. It is impossible here to give even a sketch of the long and able controversies which have occurred in France on the principles of management of foundling hospitals, the advantages of tours and the system of admission à bureau ouvert, the transfer of orphans from one department to another, the hygiene and service of hospitals and the inspection of nurses, the education and reclamation of the children and the rights of the state in their future. Reference may be made to the works noticed at the end of this article.
Belgium.—In this country the arrangements for the relief of foundlings and the appropriation of public funds for that purpose very much resemble those in France, and can hardly be usefully described apart from the general questions of local government and poor law administration. The Commissions des Hospices Civiles, however, are purely communal bodies, although they receive pecuniary assistance from both the departments and the state. A decree of 1811 directed that there should be an asylum and a wheel for receiving foundlings in every arrondissement. The last “wheel,” that of Antwerp, was closed in 1860. (See Des Institutions de bienfaisance et de prévoyance en Belgique, 1850 à 1860, par M. P. Lentz.)
Italy is very rich in foundling hospitals, pure and simple, orphans and other destitute children being separately provided for. (See Della carità preventiva in Italia, by Signor Fano.) In Rome one branch of the Santo Spirito in Sassia (so called from the Schola Saxonum built in 728 by King Ina in the Borgo) has, since the time of Pope Sixtus IV., been devoted to foundlings. The average annual number of foundlings supported is about 3000. (See The Charitable Institutions of Rome, by Cardinal Morichini.) In Venice the Casa degli Esposti or foundling hospital, founded in 1346, and receiving 450 children annually, is under provincial administration. The splendid legacy of the last doge, Ludovico Manin, is applied to the
