De la mortalite excessive des enfants : pendant la premiere annee de leur existence ses causes et des moyens de la restreindre; memoire couronnee par la Societe Protectrice de L'Enfance le 18 fevrier 1872.

Paris:: Librairie J.-B. Bailliere et Fils, 1872., 1872. 23 cm. 64 pp. Original printed wrappers. Inked on title: "'Abortus Syphiliticus' See page 16" with related marginalia (p.16). Very good. Monot was a medical doctor and mayor of Moux then of Montsauche (Nievre). He denounced the high mortality rate of children placed in his district [canton] and attacked the practice of the 'on-site' wet-nurse, criticizing women who out of greed, came to Paris and abandon their own children (victims of neglect, malpropriety, unsanitary housing, exploitation and trafficking to which the children are subject – preface). In this 1872 pamphlet he wrote a remarkable study (truncated) on the excessive mortality of children during the first year of existence, their causes and ways to restrict their mortality. That study was given to the Societe Protectrice de L'Enfance [Society for the Protection of Children]. / An ink manuscript note on the cover-title references the scourge of syphilis and the fetus, addressed on page 16. On that page is an additional marginal note showing that a previous owner was highlighting this passage, writing "Abortus syphiliticus". Monot writes that a child with syphilitic poison will suffer in fertilization and can be born with cutaneous or visceral syphilis, and "destined to soon perish due to the syphilitic diathesis that comes with it." (to paraphrase the French statement). / Monot died in Montsauche-les-Settons at the age of 83. / REFERENCES: See: Catherine Fouquet ; Yvonne Knibiehler, L'Histoire des meres du Moyen Âge à nos jours, Montalba, 1980. (Inventory #: M14977)