FOUNDLING HOSPITALS

institutions for receiving children abandoned by their parents and found by strangers. ong such institutions are that of Paris (instituted in 1670), which grew out of a home established by St. Vincent de Paulin the reign of Louis XIII, and that of London, instituted in1739. The latter, established by Thomas Coram (1668—1751,) a sailor, was originally a hospital for all exposed children; but the enormous increase in abandonments caused the hospital to be changed in 1760 to one for poor Megitimate children whose mothers are known. There were over 709 inmates in 1921. In 1926 the hospital was removed to Reigate, pending the erection of a permanent home for the foundlings on an estate near Berkhampstead. A fund was raised to preserve the site in Guilford Street, the former home of the hospital, as a public recreation ground, and in 1932 the required sum was obtained.—Cf. Sir John EH. Gorst, Children of the Nation.