La Patrie – Couveuses d’Enfants – 1897
La Patrie, a daily newspaper published in Paris, published a front-page article on Alexandre Lion’s institutes on December 21, 1897. At that point, Lion had established storefronts in Paris, London, Bordeaux, Lyono, Marseille, Brussels, and New York, and had also exhibited at numerous exhibitions in Europe and the United States.
Scroll down below the full page image to view a more readable version of the article and an English version courtesy of Google Translate. Source: Retronews.fr
La Maternitê Lion.
L’œuvre maternelle. — Science et philanthropie. — Le sauvetage des enfants débiles.
In our age of skepticism and selfishness, where all forms of human activity seem to converge toward the same goal, it is comforting to occasionally encounter modest and selfless scholars who push altruism and love of neighbor to the point of complete selflessness, dedicating their intelligence and talent to works of pure humanity.
Science, which produces so many masterpieces, has enabled one of these good men, Mr. Lion, director and founder of the Maternal Incubator for Children, to perform the truly miraculous rescue of thousands of children already, through the application of an invention recognized by illustrious medical professionals in France and abroad.
For seven years, Mr. Lion has been establishing veritable nurseries in Nice, Paris, London, Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille, Brussels, and many other important cities, designed to receive premature or feeble-minded infants whose fragile existence truly hangs by a thread. He has obtained such marvelous and accurate results from the point of view.
As a scientist, Dr. Vallin, in the session of the Academy of Medicine on November 12, 1895, spoke of it in these terms in his report on the Vernois Prize:
“The figures for rescues achieved by the Lion Incubators are reassuring, one might even say surprising; they demonstrate the necessity of establishing in every sizable town a nursery or maternity ward equipped with incubators for infants, which could be made operational within a few hours.
“By narrating the events that took place before his eyes and, so to speak, within his department of child inspection, Dr. Ciaudo rendered a true service to public health; he demonstrated the usefulness of a charitable institution that cannot be praised enough and that should exist everywhere. Since the number of children born is decreasing more and more, let us at least try to save them all and raise them for the nation.”
The reporter noted, in fact, that thanks to the use of incubators, 72% of the premature infants at the Lion Maternity Hospital had been saved.
The device, which has saved so many parents from having beautiful, healthy, and cheerful pink babies, was invented in 1891.
With true apostolic zeal, the inventor devoted not only all his time to it, but also a portion of his fortune; today, he sees his efforts and zeal crowned with success by the official subsidies that the State, the departmental councils, and the municipal councils have granted to his eminently useful and patriotic work.
At 26 Boulevard Poissonnière, the organization has established its Parisian branch, where all poor children are received free of charge.
Its interest will strike all serious and thoughtful minds if they consider that of the 850,000 French infants born each year, statistics show 130,000 succumb within hours of birth.
It is these infants whose lives are now saved by Mr. Lion’s device.
But let us describe the spectacle offered by the room on Boulevard Poissonnière.
Let us leave it to Dr. Maurice de Fleury to provide a technical description of Mr. Lion’s interesting apparatus:
Imagine a large metal cage, glazed at the front: in a light cradle, easy to keep clean, lies the tiny infant, an eternal source of tenderness, resting and sleeping with closed hands.
The air, constantly renewed, drawn from outside and circulated, escapes through the roof. This air is maintained at an absolutely constant temperature by a very curious system of regulating thermometers.
There are ten incubators on Boulevard Poissonnière. Ten to twelve children—sometimes two are placed together—fed by good wet nurses, are raised free of charge. Mr. Lion donated 20 incubators to the Public Assistance, which readily accepted them. He monitors their operation at home so that the child never leaves its mother.
It is the poor who will benefit. The organization has no other resources than the small donation that each visitor gives upon entering.
To carry the hope of a son for six or seven months, and to see this son die almost inevitably because he came into the world a little too soon is a sorrow that is repeated one hundred and thirty thousand times a year on French soil. Let us alleviate these sorrows a little, since it is within our power.
Let us add that at the recent exhibitions in Nashville (America) and Brussels, Mr. Lion’s incubators truly caused a sensation in the French exhibitors’ section.
In New York, where an establishment is currently operating with sixteen Lion incubators, American doctors have provided the director of the organization with such flattering and, above all, so numerous testimonials that it is impossible to reproduce them all. Note, however, a few:
Dr. Nathan Strauss writes: “The Lion Incubator, a permanent station for saving life.”
Dr. Albert Le Gehan, medical officer in the U.S. Navy: “An admirable work in every detail, most deserving of encouragement and subsidization.”
Dr. Clarke: “This is a great benefit to humanity.”
Dr. Gutelmann: “Marvelous!”
Dr. Sidemberg: “Nothing is greater than saving lives.”
Dr. J. Davis: “Just what the world needed.”
And there are more than a hundred of this kind.
Mothers, who know the worries caused by raising children with disabilities; young women, for whom motherhood awaits and who will soon know, along with the joy of motherhood, all the anxieties and worries caused by the fragile health of a loved one; young girls, who will one day be women, do not pass by Boulevard Poissonnière without going in there to educate yourselves while participating in a good cause.
Our readers will not be surprised to learn that Mr. Lion’s invention has received the highest awards at all the Expositions and that governments currently have all their attention fixed on its great importance.
PIERRE FRANC.
Last Updated on 12/03/25