"Enriching the Hospital's Scientific Fame": Research at the Vienna Foundling Hospital.

Background: Little is known about medical research at the Vienna Foundling Hospital during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Summary: The present paper focuses on nutrition, medical care, and research concerning newborn infants. In 1784, Emperor Joseph II merged obstetric and foundling hospitals under common leadership with specific statutes.

Neonatal Research at the Archiospedale Santo Spirito in Rome.

Abandoning infants was a heritage of the Roman Empire. Foundling hospitals were established in Italy earlier and in greater number than in other countries; their goal was to prevent infanticides. The Foundling Hospital in Rome, established in the Santo Spirito Church in 1204, paved the way toward modern hospital care and child protection.

From Exclusion to Glass Ceiling: A History of Women in Neonatal Medicine.

The 21st century's medicine is predominantly female: two thirds of medical students now are women. In 375 BCE, Plato argued for equal education for male and female professions, explicitly physicians. In Greece and Rome, tombstones testify for patients' gratitude to women physicians.

Exposed and Abandoned. Origins of the Foundling Hospital.

Abandoning undesired newborn infants was a Roman form of family limitation. They were exposed or given to foster mothers. Christianization alleviated their lot when in 374 CE, Emperor Valentinian's law provided some protection.

Dishonoured: The Fate of Infants Born out of Wedlock.

This paper investigates causes and consequences of the prejudice towards extramaritally born infants. The main rationale for such defamation seems to have been religious teachings. However, rather than a matter of sexual morals, "illegitimacy" became an economic issue when infants were maintained on taxpayers' money.

Ignored Papers, Invented Quotations: A History of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.

Given the high rate of alcoholism throughout history, its effects on the fetus may have existed for millennia. But, the claim that Greeks and Romans were aware of fetal alcohol syndrome rests on incorrect citations. From 1725, maternal alcohol consumption was associated with retarded fetal growth and neurological anomalies.

Swinging and Rocking: Two Millennia of Debating the Cradle.

In most societies, devices evolved to enhance the mother's working capacity. This article depicts the cradle's development in some countries and delineates the scientific debate that led to its demise in the 19th century. A few basic forms of infant cots survived the centuries from antiquity: the carrying board, trough, hammock, sling, transverse rockers, and forward rockers.

Revived for Paradise: A History of Respite Sanctuaries.

Infant baptism originated when St. Augustine proclaimed the doctrine of original sin in 412 CE. Neonates stillborn or deceased before baptism were declared to go down to Hell and were buried outside of sacred ground.

Cot Death: History of an Iatrogenic Disaster.

Since antiquity, cot death has been explained as accidental suffocation, overlaying, or smothering. Parents were blamed for neglect or drunkenness. A cage called arcuccio was invented around 1570 to protect the sleeping infant.

From "apparent death" to "birth asphyxia": a history of blame.

Since the sixteenth century, competition between midwives and surgeons has created a culture of blame around the difficult delivery. In the late seventeenth century, 100 years before oxygen was discovered, researchers associated "apparent death of the newborn" with impaired respiratory function of the placenta. The diagnosis "birth asphyxia" replaced the term "apparent death of the newborn" during the mass phobia of being buried alive in the eighteenth century.

Social Birth: Rites of Passage for the Newborn.

Rites of passage mark important changes during human life and, for the neonate, its transition from intrauterine life into society. Their original intent was to purify the body from blood and meconium. But the cleansing rites had a spiritual dimension from the very start.

Pulmo uterinus: a history of ideas on fetal respiration.

Theories about fetal respiration began in antiquity. Aristotle characterized pneuma as warm air, but also as the enabler of vital functions and instrument of the soul. In Galen's system of physiology, the vital spirit was carried by the umbilical arteries, the nutrients by the umbilical vein from the placenta to the fetus.

Hepar uterinum: a history of ideas on fetal nutrition.

The means of fetal nutrition has been debated for over two millennia, with the controversy of oral versus parenteral nutrition already in the Corpus Hippocraticum. In 1587 Aranzio rejected connections between maternal and fetal blood vessels, and coined the term "hepar uterinum" for the placenta. From the 16th to the 18th century, a fervent debate focused on the type and extent of connection between maternal and fetal vessels, which was finally settled by Hunter's injection experiment in 1774.

Animatio: a history of ideas on the beginning of personhood.

The onset of individual human life has fascinated thinkers of all cultures and epochs, and the history of their ideas may enlighten an unsettled debate. Aristotle attributed three different souls to the subsequent developmental stages. The last, the rational soul, was associated with the formed fetus, and entailed fetal movements.

From Crime to Disease: Laws on Infanticide in the Modern Era.

This is the third of three papers investigating the legislative history concerning infanticide. After Antiquity and the Middle Ages, this paper focuses on legislative reforms during the last 400 years. Despite dreadful punishment, the practice remained frequent until safe abortion became available.

From Sin to Crime: Laws on Infanticide in the Middle Ages.

This is the second of three papers investigating the legislative history concerning infanticide. It compares the efforts of various states to protect the newborn infant between 534 and 1532 CE. When the Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th century, the jurisdiction of infanticide was relegated to the church, which regarded carnal delicts a sin rather than a crime.

From Right to Sin: Laws on Infanticide in Antiquity.

This is the first of three papers investigating changes in infanticide legislation as indicators of the attitude of states towards the neonate. In ancient East Asian societies in which the bride's family had to pay an excessive dowry, selective female infanticide was the rule, despite formal interdiction by the law. In Greece and Rome children's lives had little value, and the father's rights included killing his own children.

Lethal Lullabies: A History of Opium Use in Infants.

Poppy extract accompanied the human infant for more than 3 millenia. Motives for its use included excessive crying, suspected pain, and diarrhea. In antiquity, infantile sleeplessness was regarded as a disease.

Innocent blood: a history of hemorrhagic disease of the newborn.

Hemorrhages occurring in the newborn without trauma have been observed by obstetricians since the 17th century, but have been considered different diseases depending on their location. Umbilical hemorrhage associated with obstructed bile canals was described by Cheyne in 1802. Grandidier in 1871 and Townsend in 1894 grouped together various forms of neonatal bleeds and associated them with disturbed coagulation.

Characterization of the vitamin A transport in preterm infants after repeated high-dose vitamin A injections.

Background/objectives: Preterm infants have low vitamin A stores at birth, and parenteral administration of high-dose vitamin A reduces pulmonary morbidity. The aim was to characterize vitamin A transport and status.

Subjects/methods: Prospective study of 69 preterm infants (median birth weight 995 g, gestational age 28 weeks), in which 51 received 5000 IU vitamin A three times per week intramuscular (i.

Historic records on the commercial production of infant formula.

Industrialized food production first appeared in 1856, pioneered by Borden in the USA, Liebig in Germany, Nestlé in Switzerland, and Mellin in the UK. Their products differed remarkably and deviated from human and cow's milk, and physicians discussed the importance of minute variations in protein, fat and carbohydrates. Proprietary formulas were free of bacteria, and the companies prospered with mass production, international marketing and aggressive advertising.