Without the history of the child there cannot be a scientific knowledge of the thousands of years of child life. Nobody has given it until the author of this book afforded us the wealth of his vast studies. This book furnishes what no other work presents to us. I know of none which acquaints us with the position of the child in his social, political, and humanitarian existence in all nations and in all eras. Adults and adult life. have long been served by the endeavours of historians, philosophers, and psychologists. We do not believe in completeness of our knowledge unless all that have been perfected. Medical men do not believe in possessing a scientific grasp of any of their subjects without an embryological basis. Statesmen, aye, even politicians, of the better class, insist upon an ample knowledge of the history of their countries, their institutions, and their laws. That is how the last years of our medical and professional life in this country have developed amongst us physicians the taste for history and such books as Fielding Garrison has been able to prepare for us within the last year. When I said the book before us was unique, I meant to say that it is a special monograph of the life through thousands of years of slow physical, domestic, economic, social existence of the child. No historian, no medical practitioner or teacher, surely no existing pediatrist will be without it. A. JACOBI. NEW YORK CITY, December 21, 1915. PREFACE HE introduction of Dr. Jacobi has saved the author from the onerous task, ofttimes TH a graceless one, of writing extended prefatory remarks. It was in the course of some researches into the origin of the Child Protection movement in this country that I discovered how little attention had been paid to the historical aspect of this important question. This book represents really a process of elimination, behind which were many fascinating byways, alluring blind alleys, and seeming countless beckoning theories. Toward the last, for a person with human instinct writing on a humane subject, it was hard not to tilt. In the main, however, the author believes that he has hewed to the line. The author is indebted for many courtesies to the officials of the New York Public Library, likewise to the Congressional Library at Washington, the British Museum at London, and the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris. His thanks are due also to Dr. C. C. Williamson, formerly Chief of the Economics Division of the New York Public Library, who took a deep and serious interest in the work; to Professor Richard Gottheil of Colum bia, for many helpful suggestions in connection with the Semitics studies; to Professor Hiram Bingham of Yale, for some helpful notes on the Incas; to Mr. A. S. Freidus, Chief of the Jewish Division of the New York Public Library; to Professor Adolf Deissmann, of the University of Berlin; to Mr. Elbridge T. Gerry, whose library provided a wealth of material; to the late Thomas D. Walsh, Superintendent of the New York S. P. C. C., a humanitarian of the first water; to Mr. Jesse B. Jackson, Mr. W. J. Yerby, Mr. Charles H. Allbrecht, and Mr. E. A. Wakefield, all of the American Consular Service; to Mr. J. William Davis, for supervision of the Bibliography; to Mr. Gabriel Schlesinger, for assistance in reading the proofs; and, above all, to Mr. Robert E. MacAlarney, of Columbia University, to whose sustaining criticism and deep personal interest the author owes more than can be here set down. Kingsbridge, New York January, 1916 GEORGE HENRY PAYNE. CONTENTS MATERNAL AFFECTION THE BEGINNING OF HUMAN ALTRUISM-SYMPATHY AND PAREN- TAL LOVE THE BASIS OF OTHER VIRTUES- THE WEAKest SacrifiCED IN ALL PRIMITIVE SOCIETY-NEGLECTED CHAPTERS IN THE PAGE THE KILLING OF TWINS-OTHER EXCUSES FOR INFANTICIDE-RESTRICTING THE FAMILY- |