No. CI.

Extract from an account of a Charity for Lying-in Women at Ware. By Mr. WILLIAM ALLEN.

In September 1795, there was formed at Ware, in the county of Hertford, a Lying-in Society, for the relief of poor married women in Ware and its vicinity. The general plan was taken from that of Tottenham High Cross: but in its regulations it differs in some respects from that and other similar charities noticed in the preceding Reports. It is supported by subscriptions ; each subscriber of 26 shillings a year being intitled to three annual presentations; and so in proportion. Upon admission, every subscriber pays three shillings and six pence, towards a fund for the purchase of lying-in linen. This fund is increased by occasional donations from non-subscribers,

and the surplus enables the conductors to keep the old linen in repair, and to purchase new linen when necessary.

The subscribers have the option of using any of their three presentations, either in favour of a lying-in woman, or of a distressed sick woman. If for a poor woman on her lying-in, she is allowed, besides the use of a set of linen for her month, seven shillings towards defraying the expense of a midwife, nurse, &c.; and, to be laid out in flannel for the child, one shilling; or, in case of twins, two. The subscribers must give to every woman they recommend, one ticket for the money, and another for the linen; which can in no case be delivered without a ticket, and which must be returned clean, and right in number. There is also a regulation that no infectious person be allowed the use of the linen; and that women, offending wilfully against the regulations, should be excluded in future from the benefits of the charity.

The gradual progress and success of this institution has been very gratifying to the founders of it. They began with three bags, or sets of linen, for the mother and child; but by the surplus of subscriptions, however small, and by some donations, they have been enabled to purchase twenty sets of linen, and to keep them in good repair. In the first year, 50 pregnant women received the benefit of the charity;in the second, 51 ;-in the third, 75;-in the fourth, 79;-in the fifth, 97;-in the sixth, 98;-and in the seventh, the preceding year, 112 mothers and their children were objects of its relief. It continues to increase, and to extend its advantages to the adjacent villages for some miles round. Its benefits are received with gratitude, and the linen, in almost every instance, has been returned clean and in good condition.

OBSERVATIONS.

We have already had occasion to observe, how much better it is, that a poor woman

should be attended, during her lying-in, in her own habitation; and should there have

a little pecuniary and other assistance, in preference to her being carried into a lying-in hospital. This preference does not originate merely in the difference of expense; tho that is a very considerable object, and always ought to be a subject of attention, in the administration of every charity. Waste in charities exhausts and annihilates those funds, for a share in which the necessities and the sufferings of man will ever produce claims and demands, beyond the power of satisfaction. But in this and in all instances of charity it does a still greater prejudice: it injures the domestic and prudential habits of the objects of the charity; and returns them to their families, with an indisposition to practise those minute details of economy, which are essential to the well-being of the poor. Besides this, their children are to be attended to; and tho in a few days after the birth they would be capable, if at home, of managing and directing in their own

families, yet, if delivered in a lying-in hospital, they do not return under a month; and in the mean time their places must be supplied by some female attendant; often with very pernicious family consequences.

The most material object of hospitals for the reception of lying-in women-the affording of superior medical aid in cases of difficulty-has been well provided for, at the Manchester Infirmary. Upon notice from a regular midwife of a difficult case of delivery, the surgeon of the district, or in his absence the one next in rotation, immediately attends gratis, and assists the woman at home. This, it has been observed, occasions no additional expense to the infirmary, except that of medicines where wanted. The cases, in which surgeons have been so called in, were very few; but most, if not all, of them would have been attended with great danger, without such medical assistance.

If we compare the relative bearings of