Chapter XVII: Part 17

A good plan for foundations when the ground is loose and sandy is to
build upon wells of brickwork, a method which has been successfully
practised in Madras. The wells are made circular, about 3 ft. in
diameter and one brick thick. The first course is laid and cemented
together on the surface of the ground when it is dry, and the earth is
excavated inside and round about it to allow it to sink. Then another
is laid over it and again sunk. The well is thus built downwards. The
brickwork is sunk bodily to a depth of 10 ft. or more, according to
building to be erected upon it, and the interior is filled up with
rubble work. All the public buildings at Madras were erected upon
foundations of this kind. Well foundations were employed under the
city hall, Kansas City, and the Stock Exchange, Chicago.

Coffer dams.

Coffer dams are wooden structures used to keep back the water whilst
putting in foundations on the waterside, and are constructed with two
rows of timbers, 12 in. square as piles spaced about 6 ft. apart, and
filled in between with a double row of 2 in. or 3 in. boards, the
space between the rows being packed with clay puddle (fig. 10). The
general rule for the thickness of a coffer dam is to make it equal to
the depth of water. An interesting example of a coffer dam is that at
the Keyham dock extension, where piles varied in length from 65 ft. to
85 ft. They were driven in a double row 5 ft. apart, and over 13,000
were used.

Dock foundations.

Dock foundations are constructed after the fashion of a large concrete
tank, and are adapted to large sites where a difficulty arises as to
the ingress of water. They are considered the best method of
constructing a building on soft ground and of keeping a building dry
(fig. 11). This type of foundation was used at the new colonial
office, Whitehall, London, and the new admiralty buildings at St
James's Park, London. A few buildings treated after the style of a
dock, but in some instances without the enclosing walls, are the
following: At the admiralty buildings already mentioned a concrete
retaining wall completely surrounds the exterior below the ground, and
is joined up to the underpinning work; the whole site being covered
with concrete 6 ft. thick, a huge tank is formed of an average inside
clear depth of 20 ft. in which the basements are built. The new "Old
Bailey" buildings in Newgate Street, London, are constructed on a
concrete table 5 ft. thick, as also are the Army and Navy Auxiliary
Stores, Victoria Street. At Kennet's Wharf, near Southwark Bridge, a
concrete table, 8 ft. thick, was spread all over the site, with an
extra thickness under the walls. Foundations formed similarly to dock
foundations, but in addition having steel joists and rods inserted in
the thickness of the concrete table, to tie the whole together, are
known as _gridiron_ foundations.

In the Hennebique concrete system, all beams, &c., are formed with
small rods and then surrounded with concrete; it is designed for
floors and for spreading the weight of a building over an extended
foundation on soft ground.

Cantilever foundations.

Where a heavy wall is to be built against an old one and there is not
sufficient room for the foundations, the plan is adopted of building
pier foundations at some distance from the proposed new wall. On the
top of these piers rest steel cantilevers over steel pin rockers upon
cast iron bedplates; the cantilevers are secured at one end to a
column, while the other ends go through the full thickness of the new
wall. Upon these last ends is placed a steel girder upon which the
wall is built. This construction (fig. 12) has been used in America,
and in the Ritz Hotel, Piccadilly, London.

Another form of cantilever foundations was employed in the case of
some premises at Carr's Lane, Birmingham, partly built over the Great
Western railway tunnel (fig. 13). In this instance large piers were
built below the ground at the side of the tunnel. From the tops of
these piers large steel cantilevers were erected projecting over the
crown of the tunnel, and on these steel girders were fixed and the
building constructed upon them.

Foundations in Tunis.

In modern Tunis, a section of which city is built on marshy ground,
the subsoil is an oozy sediment, largely deposited by the sewage water
from the ancient or Arab quarter of the city, which is situated on an
adjacent hill. This semi-fluid mud has a depth of about 33 ft. To
prepare the soil for supporting an ordinary house, pits from 8 ft. to
10 ft. square are excavated to a depth of about 10 ft., to the level
of the ground water. A mixture is made of the excavated soil and
powdered fat lime, procured from clinkers and unburnt stone from the
lime-kilns, which soon crumbles to fine dust when exposed to the air.
The mixture is thrown into pits in layers about 12 in. thick and
rammed down for a very long time by specially trained labourers. A
gang of 15 or 20 men will work at least 10 or 12 days ramming for the
foundations of a moderate-sized house. An extremely hard bed is thus
obtained, reaching to within 18 in. of the surface of the ground, and
on this artificial bed the foundations of the building are laid.
Although this method of construction is crude, it is stated that the
practical results are superior to those obtained by using piles,
concrete or other recognized methods, and in all cases the cost is
much less, for labour is cheap.

Building on sand.

A novel and interesting foundation was designed for a signal station
at Cape Henlopen, Delaware. This is built on top of the highest
sandhill at Cape Henlopen, so that the observer may have an
unobstructed view; it rises about 80 ft. above the level of the sea
and is exposed to all winds and weather, while it is absolutely
required that it shall stand firmly planted in such a way that even a
hurricane shall not shake it or make it tremble, since that would
affect the sight of the telescope in the observatory. The usual mode
of securing such a building is by means of a foundation of screw piles
or of heavy timbers sunk into the sand; this method, however, has the
disadvantage that if the wind shifts the sand away from around the
foundation, it becomes undermined and its effect is destroyed. To
avoid such an accident, recourse was had to the following design,
which was considered to be cheap and at the same time to provide an
effective anchorage. The building is entirely of wood; it has a
cellar, above which are two rooms one above the other, and the whole
is surmounted by the observatory proper. First, the ground sill is a
square of 20 ft., made of yellow pine sticks mortised together and
pinned with stout trunnels. The sill of the observatory is made
likewise of heavy timbers, 12 ft. long. The two sills are joined
together by four stout yellow pine corner posts, which in turn are
mortised into both sills. The posts are 26 ft. in length. Five feet
above the lower sill is the sill which supports the floor of the first
room. Ten feet above this is the sill which supports the upper room.
Both these sills again are mortised into the corner posts. The
structure is sheathed outside with German siding, and inside with
rough boards covered with felt, and again by tongued and grooved
yellow pine boards. The observatory proper, octagonal in shape, is
securely mortised into the top sill and covered with a corrugated iron
roof conical in shape. The cellar is floored with 3 in. wood, and
boarded all round on the inside of the posts. A pit was first dug in
the sand about 6 ft. deep and fully 20 ft. wide on the bottom. The
cellar sill was laid on this bottom, and the structure built upon it;
thus the whole depth of cellar is sunk below the top of the hill or
the level of the sand. The cellar was then filled up with sand and
packed solid all round, consequently the building is anchored in its
place by the load in the cellar, about 100 tons in weight.

The subject of foundations, being naturally of the first importance,
is one that calls for most careful study. It is not of so much
importance that the ground be hard or even rocky as that it be compact
and of similar consistency throughout. It is not always that a site
answers to this description, and the problem of what will be the best
form of foundation to use in placing a building, more especially if
that building be of large dimensions and consequently great weight, on
a site of soft yielding soil, is one that is often most difficult of
solution. The foregoing article indicates in a brief manner some of
the obstacles the architect or engineer is required to surmount before
his work can even be started on its way to completion.

AUTHORITIES.--The principal books for reference on this subject are:
_A Practical Treatise on Foundations_, by W.M. Patron, C. E.;
_Building Construction and Superintendence_, part i., by F.E. Kidder;
_Notes on Building Construction_, vols. i. ii. and iii.; _Aide
Memoir_, vol. ii., by Colonel Seddon, R.E.; _Advanced Building
Construction_, by C.F. Mitchell; _Modern House Construction_, by G.L.
Sutcliffe; _Building Construction_, by Professor Henry Adams;
_Practical Building Construction_, by J.P. Allen. (J. Bt.)

FOUNDING (from Lat. _fundere_, to pour), the process of casting in metal, of making a reproduction of a given object by running molten metal into a mould taken in sand, loam or plaster from that object. To enable the founder to prepare a mould for the casting, he must receive a pattern similar to the casting required. Some few exceptions occur, to be noted presently, but the above statement is true of perhaps 98% of all castings produced. The construction of such patterns gives employment to a large number of highly skilled men, who can only acquire the necessary knowledge through an apprenticeship lasting from five to seven years. A knowledge of two trades at least is involved in the work of pattern construction--that of the craft itself and that of the moulder and founder. Patterns have to be constructed strongly. They are generally of wood, and they thus require skill in the use of woodworking tools and the making of timber joints, together with a knowledge of the behaviour of timber, &c. Some few patterns are made in iron, brass or white metal alloys. They have to be embedded in a matrix of sand by the founder, and being enclosed, they have to be withdrawn without inflicting any damage in the way of fracture in the sand. Since cast work involves shapes that are often very intricate, including projections and hollow spaces of all forms, it is obvious that the withdrawal of the patterns without entailing tearing up and fracture of the sand must involve many difficult problems that have to be as fully understood by the pattern-maker as by the moulder. It is from this point of view that the work of the pattern-maker should be approached in the first place. No closed mould can possibly be made without one or more joints, for if a pattern is wholly enclosed in a matrix of sand it cannot be withdrawn except by making a parting in the sand, and it is not difficult to conceive that the parting in the pattern might advantageously be made to coincide, either exactly or approximately, with that of the mould. Nor must obstacles exist to the free withdrawal of patterns. They must therefore not be wider or larger in the lower than in the upper parts; actually they are made a trifle smaller or "tapered." Nor may they have any lateral extensions into the lower sand, unless these can be made to withdraw separately from the main portion of the pattern. Finally, there are many internal spaces which cannot be formed by a pattern directly in the sand, but provision for which must be made by some means extraneous to the pattern, as by cores.

A single example must illustrate the main principles which have just
been stated. The object selected is a bracket which involves questions
of joints, of cores, of pattern construction and of moulding. The
casting, the pattern, and its mould are illustrated. Fig. 1
illustrates in plan the casting of a double bracket, the end elevation
of which is seen in fig. 2; the pattern of which presents obvious
difficulties in the way of withdrawal from a mould, supposing it were
made just like its casting. But if it be made as in fig. 3, with the
open spaces A, B, in fig. 2, occupied with core prints, and the pieces
A, A in fig. 3 left loosely skewered on, everything will "deliver"
freely. Moreover the pattern might be made solidly as shown in fig. 3,
or else jointed and dowelled in the plane a-a, as in fig. 4, or along
the upper faces of the prints b-b, fig. 3. The timber shadings in
figs. 3 and 4 illustrate points in the most suitable arrangement of
material. The prints are "boxed up." Fig. 4 shows a certain stage of
the moulding, in which one half of the pattern has been "rammed" in
sand, and turned over in the "bottom box," and the upper half is ready
to be rammed in the "top box," with "runner pin" or "git stick" A, set
in place. The lower loose piece has had its skewer removed during the
ramming. Fig. 5 illustrates the mould completed and ready for pouring.
The boxes have been parted, the pattern has been withdrawn, cores
inserted in the impressions left by the prints, vents taken from the
central body of cinders, the pouring basin made and the boxes cottered
together.

Every single detail now briefly noted in connexion with this bracket
is applied and modified in an almost infinite number of ways to suit
the ever varying character of foundry work. Yet this process does not
touch some of the great subdivisions of moulding and casting. There is
a large volume of large and heavy work for which complete patterns and
core boxes are never made, because of the great expense that would be
involved in the pattern construction. There are also some cases in
which the methods adopted would not permit of the use of patterns, as
in that group of work in which the sand or loam is "swept" to the form
required for the moulds and cores by means of striking boards, loam
boards, core boards or strickles. In these classes of moulding the
loose green sands and core sands are not much used; instead, loam--a
wet and plastic sand mixture--is employed, supported against bricks
(loam moulds) or against core bars and plates, and hay ropes (loam
cores). All heavy marine engine cylinders are thus made by sweeping,
and all massive cores for engine cylinders and large pipes, besides
much large circular and cylindrical work, as foundation cylinders,
soap pans, lead pans, mortar pans, large propeller blades, &c. In
these cases the edge of the striking board is a counterpart of the
profile of the work swept up. Joints also have to be made in such
moulds, not of course in order to provide for the removal of a
pattern, but for the exposure of the separate parts in course of
construction, and for closing them up, or putting them together in
their due relations. These joints also are swept by the boards,
generally cut to produce suitable "checks," or "registers" to ensure
that they accurately fit together. Fig. 6, showing a portion of a
swept-up mould, illustrates the general arrangement. A plate, A,
carries a quantity of bricks, B, which are embedded in loam, and break
joint. To a striking bar, C, supported in a step, a striking board or
sweeping board, D, is bolted, and is swept round against plastic loam,
which is afterwards dried. The check on the board at A corresponds
with a similar check on the board which strikes the interior of the
pan, and by which top and bottom portions of the mould are registered
together. This is indicated in dotted outline. Its mould also is swept
on bricks, and turned over into place, and the metal is poured into
the space b, b, between the two moulds. There is also a large group of
swept-up work which is not symmetrical about a centre of rotation.
Then the movements of the sweeping boards are controlled by the edges
of "core plates," or of "core irons" (fig. 7). Bend pipes, and the
volute casings of centrifugal pumps and pipes, afford examples of this
kind. In fig. 7, A is the core iron, held down by weights, and B the
"strickle," sweeping up the half bend C, two such halves pasted
together completing the core.

Core-making is a special department of foundry work, often involving
as much detail as the construction and moulding of patterns. Two
perfectly plain boxes are shown in figs. 8 and 9, in both of which
provision exists for removing the box parts from the core after the
latter has been rammed. Core boxes are jointed and tapered, and often
have loose pieces within them, and also prints, into the impressions
of which other cores are inserted.

_Machine-moulding._--There is a development of modern methods of founding which is effecting radical changes in some departments of foundry practice, namely, moulding by machines. The advantages of this method are manifold, and its limitations are being lessened continually. There are two broad departments between which machine-moulding is divided. One, of less importance, is that of toothed wheels; the other is that of general work, except of a very massive character.

Gear-wheel moulding machines are essentially a special adaptation of the mechanism of the dividing engine, by means of which, instead of using a complete pattern of a toothed wheel, two or three pattern teeth are used, and the machine takes charge of the correct pitching or division of the teeth moulded therefrom, leaving to the moulder the work only of turning the handle of the division plate, and ramming the sand around the pattern teeth. The result is accurate pitching, and the use of two or three teeth instead of a full pattern, together with any core boxes and striking boards that are necessary for the arms.

The other department of machine moulding includes nearly every conceivable class of work of small and medium dimensions. There are some dozens of distinct types of machines in use, for no one type is suitable for all classes of moulds, while some are designed specially for one or two kinds only.

The fundamental principles of operation are briefly these: The pattern
parts constitute, by their method of attachment to a plate or table A
(fig. 10), an integral portion of the machine, so that they must
partake of certain movements which are imparted to it. Often patterns
mounted, as in fig. 10, are moulded by hand, without any aid from a
machine, by methods of "plate-moulding." The delivery of the pattern
from the sand is invariably accomplished by a perpendicular movement
of a portion of the machine (fig. 11), withdrawing either the pattern
from the mould or the mould from the pattern. The important point is
that the perpendicular movement, being under the coercion of the
vertical guides provided in the hand machines, or the hydraulic ram in
fig. 11, is free from the unsteadiness which is incidental to
withdrawal by the hands of the moulder; and if the machine performed
nothing more than this it would justify its existence. Little or no
taper is required in the pattern, and the moulds are more nearly
uniform in dimensions than hand-made moulds. But there are other
advantages. In machine-moulding the joint faces for parting moulds
are produced by the faces of the plates on which the pattern is
mounted (figs. 10 and 11), instead of by the hands and trowel of the
moulder. When the joint face is of irregular outline, as it often is,
this item alone saves a good deal of time, which again is multiplied
by the number of moulds repeated, often amounting to thousands.
Further, provision is generally made on machine plates for the ingates
and runners (fig. 10) through which the metal enters the mould, the
preparation of which in hand work occupies a considerable amount of
time. Another great advantage applies especially to the case of deep
moulds. These give much trouble in hand-moulding in consequence of the
liability of the sand to become torn up during the withdrawal of the
pattern. But in machine-moulding such patterns are encircled by a
plate, termed a "stripping plate," which is pierced to allow the
patterns to pass through, and which, being maintained firmly on the
sand during the lifting of the pattern, prevents it from becoming torn
up. This is not merely a matter of convenience, but is a necessity in
numerous instances. The most familiar example is that of the teeth of
gear wheels, in which even a very slight amount of taper interferes
with accurate engagement, and this is representative of many other
portions of mechanism. These stripping plates are of metal, but in
order to save the cost of filing them in iron or steel, many are
cheaply made by casting a white metal alloy round the actual pattern
itself in the first place, the white metal being enclosed and retained
in a plain iron frame which forms the body of the plate. Lastly, many
machines, but not the majority, include provision for mechanically
ramming the sand around the pattern by power instead of by hand. This
is really the least valuable feature of a moulding machine, because it
is not applicable to any but rather shallow moulds. It is commonly
used for these, but the consistence and homogeneity of a mass of sand
round a pattern having deep perpendicular sides can only be ensured by
careful hand ramming.

The highest economies of machine-moulding are obtained when (1)
several small patterns are mounted and moulded at once on a single
plate (fig. 10); (2) when top and bottom parts of a mould are produced
on different machines, carrying each its moiety of the pattern; (3)
when the machine and pattern details are simplified so much that the
labour of trained moulders is displaced by that of unskilled
attendants who are taught in a month or two the few simple operations
required. That is the direction in which repetitive casting is now
rapidly tending.

In fig. 11 A is the plate, which in its essentials corresponds with
the plate A in fig. 10, but which in the machine is made to swivel so
as to bring each half of the pattern B, B in turn uppermost for
ramming in the box parts C, C. The ramming is done by hand, the final
squeeze being imparted against the presser D by the action of the
hydraulic ram E pushing the plate, mould and box up against D. The
plate being then lowered, and turned over, the further descent of the
ram withdraws the bottom box from the pattern, which is the stage seen
in the illustration. Then the half mould is run away on the carriage
F, provided with wheels to run on rails.

Though casting in iron, steel, the bronzes, aluminium, &c., is
carried on by different men in distinct shops, yet the foregoing
principles and methods apply to all alike. Work is done in green, i.e.
moist sand, in dry sand (the moulds being dried before being used),
and in plastic loam (which is subsequently dried). Hand and machine
moulding are practised in each, the last-named excepted. The
differences in working are those due to the various characteristics of
the different metals and alloys, which involve differences in the sand
mixtures used, in the dimensions of the pouring channels, of the
temperature at which the metal or alloy must be poured, of the fluxing
and cleansing of the metal, and other details of a practical
character. Hence the practice which is suitable for one department
must be modified in others. Many castings in steel would inevitably
fracture if poured into moulds prepared for iron, many iron castings
would fracture if poured into moulds suitable for brass, and neither
brass nor steel would fill a mould having ingates proportioned
suitably for iron.

A special kind of casting is that into "chill moulds," adopted in a
considerable number of iron castings, such as the railway wheels in
the United States, ordinary tramway wheels, the rolls of iron and
steel rolling mills, the bores of cast wheel hubs, &c. The chill
ranges in depth from 1/4 in. to 1 in., and is produced by pouring a
special mixture of mottled, or strong, iron against a cold iron
surface, the parts of the casting which are not required to be chilled
being surrounded by an ordinary mould of sand. The purpose of
chill-casting is to produce a surface hardness in the metal.

The shrinkage of metal is a fact which has to be taken account of by
the pattern-maker and moulder. A pattern and mould are made larger
than the size of the casting required by the exact amount that the
metal will shrink in cooling from the molten to the cold state. This
amount varies from 1/8 in. in 15 in., in thin iron castings, to 1/8
in. in 12 in. in heavy ones. It ranges from 3/16 in. to 5/16 in. per
foot in steel, brass and aluminium. Its variable amount has to be
borne in mind in making light and heavy-castings, and castings with or
without cores, for massive cores retard shrinkage. It is also a
fruitful cause of fracture in badly proportioned castings,
particularly of those in steel. Brass is less liable to suffer in this
respect than iron, and iron much less than steel. (J. G. H.)

FOUNDLING HOSPITALS, originally institutions for the reception of "foundlings," i.e. children who have been abandoned or exposed, and left for the public to find and save. The early history of such institutions is connected with the practice of infanticide, and in western Europe where social disorder was rife and famine of frequent occurrence, exposure and extensive sales of children were the necessary consequences. Against these evils, which were noticed by several councils, the church provided a rough system of relief, children being deposited (_jactati_) in marble shells at the church doors, and tended first by the _matricularii_ or male nurses, and then by the _nutricarii_ or foster-parents.[1] But it was in the 7th and 8th centuries that definite institutions for foundlings were established in such towns as Treves, Milan and Montpellier. In the 15th century Garcias, archbishop of Valencia, was a conspicuous figure in this charitable work; but his fame is entirely eclipsed by that of St Vincent de Paul, who in the reign of Louis XIII., with the help of the countess of Joigny, Mme le Gras and other religious ladies, rescued the foundlings of Paris from the horrors of a primitive institution named La Couche (rue St Landry), and ultimately obtained from Louis XIV. the use of the Bicetre for their accommodation. Letters patent were granted to the Paris hospital in 1670. The Hotel-Dieu of Lyons was the next in importance. No provision, however, was made outside the great towns; the houses in the cities were overcrowded and administered with laxity; and in 1784 Necker prophesied that the state would yet be seriously embarrassed by this increasing evil.[2] From 1452 to 1789 the law had imposed on the _seigneurs de haute justice_ the duty of succouring children found deserted on their territories. The first constitutions of the Revolution undertook as a state debt the support of every foundling. For a time premiums were given to the mothers of illegitimate children, the "enfants de la patrie." By the law of 12 Brumaire, An II. "Toute recherche de la paternite est interdite," while by art. 341 of the Code Napoleon, "la recherche de la maternite est admise."

_France._--The laws of France relating to this part of what is called
L'Assistance Publique are the decree of January 1811, the instruction
of February 1823, the decree of the 5th of March 1852, the law of the
5th of May 1869, the law of the 24th of July 1889 and the law of the
27th of June 1904. These laws carry out the general principles of the
law of 7 Frimaire An V., which completely decentralized the system of
national poor relief established by the Revolution. The _enfants
assistes_ include, besides (1) orphans and (2) foundlings proper, (3)
children abandoned by their parents, (4) ill-treated, neglected or
morally abandoned children whose parents have been deprived of their
parental rights by the decision of a court of justice, (5) children,
under sixteen years of age, of parents condemned for certain crimes,
whose parental rights have been delegated by a tribunal to the state.
Children classified under 1-5 are termed _pupilles de l'assistance_,
"wards of public charity," and are distinguished by the law of 1904
from children under the protection of the state, classified as: (1)
_enfants secourus_, i.e. children whose parents or relatives are
unable, through poverty, to support them; (2) _enfants en depot_, i.e.
children of persons undergoing a judicial sentence and children
temporarily taken in while their parents are in hospital, and (3)
_enfants en garde_, i.e. children who have either committed or been
the victim of some felony or crime and are placed under state care by
judicial authority. The asylum which receives all these children is a
departmental (_etablissement depositaire_), and not a communal
institution. The etablissement depositaire is usually the ward of an
hospice, in which--with the exception of children _en depot_--the stay
is of the shortest, for by the law of 1904, continuing the principle
laid down in 1811, all children under thirteen years of age under the
guardianship of the state, except the mentally or physically infirm,
must be boarded out in country districts. They are generally
apprenticed to some one engaged in the agricultural industry, and
until majority they remain under the guardianship of the
administrative commissioners of the department. The state pays the
whole of the cost of inspection and supervision. The expenses of
administration, the "home" expenses, for the nurse (_nourrice
sedentaire_) or the wet nurse (_nourrice au sein_), the _prime de
survie_ (premium on survival), washing, clothes, and the "outdoor"
expenses, which include (1) temporary assistance to unmarried mothers
in order to prevent desertion; (2) allowances to the foster-parents
(_nourriciers_) in the country for board, school-money, &c.; (3)
clothing; (4) travelling-money for nurses and children; (5) printing,
&c.; (6) expenses in time of sickness and for burials and apprentice
fees--are borne in the proportion of two-fifths by the state
two-fifths by the department, and the remaining fifth by the communes.
The following figures show the number of children (exclusive of
_enfants secourus_) relieved at various periods:

Year. Number relieved.
1890 95,701
1895 121,201
1900 138,308
1905 149,803

The _droit de recherche_ is conceded to the parent on payment of a
small fee. The decree of 1811 contemplated the repayment of all
expenses by a parent reclaiming a child. The same decree directed a
_tour_ or revolving box (_Drehcylinder_ in Germany) to be kept at each
hospital. These have been discontinued. The "Assistance Publique" of
Paris is managed by a "directeur" appointed by the minister of the
interior, and associated with a representative _conseil de
surveillance_. The Paris Hospice des Enfants-Assistes contains about
700 beds. There are also in Paris numerous private charities for the
adoption of poor children and orphans. It is impossible here to give
even a sketch of the long and able controversies which have occurred
in France on the principles of management of foundling hospitals, the
advantages of _tours_ and the system of admission _a bureau ouvert_,
the transfer of orphans from one department to another, the hygiene
and service of hospitals and the inspection of nurses, the education
and reclamation of the children and the rights of the state in their
future. Reference may be made to the works noticed at the end of this
article.

_Belgium._--In this country the arrangements for the relief of
foundlings and the appropriation of public funds for that purpose very
much resemble those in France, and can hardly be usefully described
apart from the general questions of local government and poor law
administration. The Commissions des Hospices Civiles, however, are
purely communal bodies, although they receive pecuniary assistance
from both the departments and the state. A decree of 1811 directed
that there should be an asylum and a wheel for receiving foundlings in
every arrondissement. The last "wheel," that of Antwerp, was closed in
1860. (See _Des Institutions de bienfaisance et de prevoyance en
Belgique_, 1850 a 1860, par M.P. Lentz.)

_Italy_ is very rich in foundling hospitals, pure and simple, orphans
and other destitute children being separately provided for. (See
_Della carita preventiva in Italia_, by Signor Fano.) In Rome one
branch of the Santo Spirito in Sassia (so called from the Schola
Saxonum built in 728 by King Ina in the Borgo) has, since the time of
Pope Sixtus IV., been devoted to foundlings. The average annual number
of foundlings supported is about 3000. (See _The Charitable
Institutions of Rome_, by Cardinal Morichini.) In Venice the Casa
degli Esposti or foundling hospital, founded in 1346, and receiving
450 children annually, is under provincial administration. The
splendid legacy of the last doge, Ludovico Manin, is applied to the
support of about 160 children by the "Congregazione di Carita" acting
through 30 parish boards (_deputazione fraternate_).

_Austria._--In Austria foundling hospitals occupied a very prominent
place in the general instructions which, by rescript dated 16th of
April 1781, the emperor Joseph II. issued to the charitable endowment
commission. In 1818 foundling asylums and lying-in houses were
declared to be state institutions. They were accordingly supported by
the state treasury until the fundamental law of 20th October 1860
handed them over to the provincial committees. They are now local
institutions, depending on provincial funds, and are quite separate
from the ordinary parochial poor institute. Admission is gratuitous
when the child is actually found on the street, or is sent by a
criminal court, or where the mother undertakes to serve for four
months as nurse or midwife in an asylum, or produces a certificate
from the parish priest and "poor-father" (the parish inspector of the
poor-law administration) that she has no money. In other cases
payments of 30 to 100 florins are made. When two months old the child
is sent for six or ten years to the houses in the neighbourhood of
respectable married persons, who have certificates from the police or
the poor-law authorities, and who are inspected by the latter and by a
special medical officer. These persons receive a constantly
diminishing allowance, and the arrangement may be determined by 14
days' notice on either side. The foster-parents may retain the child
in their service or employment till the age of twenty-two, but the
true parents may at any time reclaim the foundling on reimbursing the
asylum and compensating the foster-parents.

_Russia._--Under the old Russian system of Peter I. foundlings were
received at the church windows by a staff of women paid by the state.
But since the reign of Catherine II. the foundling hospitals have been
in the hands of the provincial officer of public charity (prykaz
obshestvennago pryzrenya). The great central institutions
(Vospitatelnoi Dom), at Moscow and St Petersburg (with a branch at
Gatchina), were founded by Catherine. When a child is brought the
baptismal name is asked, and a receipt is given, by which the child
may be reclaimed up to the age of ten. The mother may nurse her child.
After the usual period of six years in the country very great care is
taken with the education, especially of the more promising children.
The hospital is a valuable source of recruits for the public service.
Malthus (_The Principles of Population_, vol. i. p. 434) has made a
violent attack on these Russian charities. He argues that they
discourage marriage and therefore population, and that the best
management is unable to prevent a high mortality. He adds: "An
occasional child murder from false shame is saved at a very high price
if it can be done only by the sacrifice of some of the best and most
useful feelings of the human heart in a great part of the nation." It
does not appear, however, that the rate of illegitimacy in Russia is
comparatively high; it is so in the two great cities. The rights of
parents over the children were very much restricted, and those of the
government much extended by a ukase issued by the emperor Nicholas in
1837. The most eminent Russian writer on this subject is M. Gourov.
See his _Recherches sur les enfants trouves_, and _Essai sur
l'histoire des enfants trouves_ (Paris, 1829).

In _America_, foundling hospitals, which are chiefly private
charities, exist in most of the large cities.

_Great Britain._--The Foundling Hospital of London was incorporated by
royal charter in 1739 "for the maintenance and education of exposed
and deserted young children." The petition of Captain Thomas Coram,
who is entitled to the whole credit of the foundation,[3] states as
its objects "to prevent the frequent murders of poor miserable
children at their birth, and to suppress the inhuman custom of
exposing new-born infants to perish in the streets." At first no
questions were asked about child or parent, but a distinguishing mark
was put on each child by the parent. These were often marked coins,
trinkets, pieces of cotton or ribbon, verses written on scraps of
paper. The clothes, if any, were carefully recorded. One entry is,
"Paper on the breast, clout on the head." The applications became too
numerous, and a system of balloting with red, white and black balls
was adopted. In 1756 the House of Commons came to a resolution that
all children offered should be received, that local receiving places
should be appointed all over the country, and that the funds should be
publicly guaranteed. A basket was accordingly hung outside the
hospital; the maximum age for admission was raised from two to twelve
months, and a flood of children poured in from the country workhouses.
In less than four years 14,934 children were presented, and a vile
trade grew up among vagrants of undertaking to carry children from the
country to the hospital,--an undertaking which, like the French
_meneurs_, they often did not perform or performed with great cruelty.
Of these 15,000 only 4400 lived to be apprenticed out. The total
expense was about L500,000. This alarmed the House of Commons. After
throwing out a bill which proposed to raise the necessary funds by
fees from a general system of parochial registration, they came to the
conclusion that the indiscriminate admission should be discontinued.
The hospital, being thus thrown on its own resources, adopted a
pernicious system of receiving children with considerable sums (e.g.
L100), which sometimes led to the children being reclaimed by the
parent. This was finally stopped in 1801; and it is now a fundamental
rule that no money is received. The committee of inquiry must now be
satisfied of the previous good character and present necessity of the
mother, and that the father of the child has deserted it and the
mother, and that the reception of the child will probably replace the
mother in the course of virtue and in the way of an honest livelihood.
All the children at the Foundling hospital are those of unmarried
women, and they are all first children of their mothers. The principle
is in fact that laid down by Fielding in _Tom Jones_--"Too true I am
afraid it is that many women have become abandoned and have sunk to
the last degree of vice by being unable to retrieve the first slip."
At present the hospital supports about 500 children up to the age of
fifteen. The average annual number of applications is over 200, and of
admissions between 40 and 50. The children used to be named after the
patrons and governors, but the treasurer now prepares a list. Children
are seldom taken after they are twelve months old. On reception they
are sent down to the country, where they stay until they are about
four or five years old. At sixteen the girls are generally apprenticed
as servants for four years, and the boys at the age of fourteen as
mechanics for seven years. There is a small benevolent fund for
adults. The musical service, which was originally sung by the blind
children only, was made fashionable by the generosity of Handel, who
frequently had the "Messiah" performed there, and who bequeathed to
the hospital a MS. copy (full score) of his greatest oratorio. The
altar-piece is West's picture of Christ presenting a little Child. In
1774 Dr Burney and Signor Giardini made an unsuccessful attempt to
form in connexion with the hospital a public music school, in
imitation of the Conservatorium of the Continent. In 1847, however, a
successful "Juvenile Band" was started. The educational effects of
music have been found excellent, and the hospital supplies many
musicians to the best army and navy bands. The early connexion between
the hospital and the eminent painters of the reign of George II. is
one of extreme interest. The exhibitions of pictures at the Foundling,
which were organized by the Dilettanti Club, undoubtedly led to the
formation of the Royal Academy in 1768. Hogarth painted a portrait of
Captain Coram for the hospital, which also contains his March to
Finchley, and Roubillac's bust of Handel. (See _History and Objects of
the Foundling Hospital, with Memoir of its Founder_, by J. Brownlow.)

In 1704 the Foundling hospital of Dublin was opened. No inquiry was
made about the parents, and no money received. From 1500 to 2000
children were received annually. A large income was derived from a
duty on coal and the produce of car licences. In 1822 an admission fee
of L5 was charged on the parish from which the child came. This
reduced the annual arrivals to about 500. In 1829 the select committee
on the Irish miscellaneous estimates recommended that no further
assistance should be given. The hospital had not preserved life or
educated the foundlings. The mortality was nearly 4 in 5, and the
total cost L10,000 a year. Accordingly in 1835 Lord Glenelg (then
Irish Secretary) closed the institution.

Scotland never seems to have possessed a foundling hospital. In 1759
John Watson left funds which were to be applied to the pious and
charitable purpose "of preventing child murder" by the establishment
of a hospital for receiving pregnant women and taking care of their
children as foundlings. But by an act of parliament in 1822, which
sets forth "doubts as to the propriety" of the original purpose, the
money was given to trustees to erect a hospital for the maintenance
and education of destitute children.

AUTHORITIES.--_Histoire statistique et morale des enfants trouves_ by
MM. Terme et Montfalcon (Paris, 1837) (the authors were eminent
medical men at Lyons, connected with the administration of the
foundling hospital); Remacle, _Des hospices d'enfants trouves en
Europe_ (Paris, 1838); Hugel _Die Findelhauser und das Findelwesen
Europas_ (Vienna, 1863); Emminghaus, "Das Armenwesen und die
Armengesetzgebung," in _Europaischen Staaten_ (Berlin, 1870);
Sennichon, _Histoire des enfants abandonnes_ (Paris, 1880); the annual
_Rapport sur le service des enfants assistes du departement de la
Seine_; Epstein, _Studien zur Frage der Findelanstalten_ (Prague,
1882); Florence D. Hill, _Children of the State_ (2nd ed., 1889). For
United States, see H. Folks, _Care of Neglected and Dependent
Children_ (1901); A.G. Warner, _American Charities_ (enlarged, 1908)
and _Reports of Massachusetts State Board of Charities_. Information
may also be got in the _Reports on Poor Laws in Foreign Countries_,
communicated to the Local Government Board by the foreign secretary;
_Accounts and Papers_ (1875), vol. lxv. c. 1225; _Report of Committee
on the Infant Life Protection Bill_ (1890); _Report of Lords Committee
on the Infant Life Protection Bill_ (1896). (See also CHARITY AND
CHARITIES.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See _Capitularia regum Francorum_, ii. 474.

[2] _De l'administration des finances_, iii. 136; see also the
article "Enfant expose" in Diderot's _Encyclopedie_, 1755, and
Chamousset's _Memoire politique sur les enfants,_ 1757.

[3] Addison had suggested such a charity (_Guardian_, No. 3).

FOUNTAIN (Late Lat. _fontana_, from _fons_, a spring), a term applied in a restricted sense to such outlets of water as, whether fed by natural or artificial means, have contrivances of human art at a point where the water emerges. A very early existing example is preserved in the carved Babylonian basin (about 3000 B.C.) found at Tello, the ancient Lagash, and Layard mentions an Assyrian fountain, found by him in a gorge of the river Gomel, which consists of a series of basins cut in the solid rock and descending in steps to the stream. The water had been originally led from one to the other by small conduits, the lowest of which was ornamented by two rampant lions in relief. The term is applied equally to the simpler arrangements for letting water gush into an ornamental basin or to the more elaborate ones by which water is mechanically forced into high jets; and a "fountain" may be either the ornamental receptacle or the jet of water itself. In modern times the examples of ornamental or useful fountains are legion, and it will suffice here to mention some of the more important facts of historical interest.

Among the Greeks fountains were very common in the cities. Springs being very plentiful in Greece, little engineering skill was required to convey the water from place to place. Receptacles of sufficient size were made for it at the springs; and to maintain its purity, structures were raised enclosing and covering the receptacle. In Greece they were dedicated to gods and goddesses, nymphs and heroes, and were frequently placed in or near temples. That of Pirene at Corinth (mentioned also by Herodotus) was formed of white stone, and contained a number of cells from which the pleasant water flowed into an open basin. Legend connects it with the nymph Pirene, who shed such copious tears, when bewailing her son who had been slain by Diana, that she was changed into a fountain. The city of Corinth possessed many fountains. In one near the statues of Diana and Bellerophon the water flowed through the hoofs of the horse Pegasus. The fountain of Glauce, enclosed in the Odeum, was dedicated to Glauce, because she was said to have thrown herself into it believing that its waters could counteract the poisons of Medea. Another Corinthian fountain had a bronze statue of Poseidon standing on a dolphin from which the water flowed. The fountain constructed by Theagenes at Megara was remarkable for its size and decorations, and for the number of its columns. One at Lerna was surrounded with pillars, and the structure contained a number of seats affording a cool summer retreat. Near Pharae was a grove dedicated to Apollo, and in it a fountain of water. Pausanias gives a definite architectural detail when he says that a fountain at Patrae was reached from without by descending steps. Mystical, medicinal, surgical and other qualities, as well as supernatural origin, were ascribed to fountains. One at Cyane in Lycia was said to possess the quality of endowing all persons descending into it with power to see whatever they desired to see; while the legends of fountains and other waters with strange powers to heal are numerous in many lands. The fountain Enneacrunus at Athens was called Callirrhoe before the time the water was drawn from it by the nine pipes from which it took its later name. Two temples were above it, according to Pausanias, one dedicated to Demeter and Persephone, and the other to Triptolemus. The fountain in the temple of Erechtheus at Athens was supplied by a spring of salt water, and a similar spring supplied that in the temple of Poseidon Hippios at Mantinea.

The water-supply of Rome and the works auxiliary to it were on a scale to be expected from a people of such great practical power. The remains of the aqueducts which stretched from the city across the Campagna are amongst the most striking monuments of Italy. Vitruvius (book viii.) gives minute particulars concerning the methods to be employed for the discovery, testing and distribution of water, and describes the properties of different waters with great care, proving the importance which was attached to these matters by the Romans. The aqueducts supplied the baths and the public fountains, from which last all the populace, except such as could afford to pay for a separate pipe to their houses, obtained their water. These fountains were therefore of large size and numerous. They were formed at many of the _castella_ of the aqueducts. According to Vitruvius, each _castellum_ should have three pipes,--one for public fountains, one for baths and the third for private houses. Considerable revenue was drawn from the possessors of private water-pipes. The Roman fountains were generally decorated with figures and heads. Fountains were often also the ornament of Roman villas and country houses; in those so situated the water generally ally fell from above into a large marble basin, with at times a second fall into a still lower receptacle. Two adjacent houses in Pompeii had very remarkable fountains. One, says Gell, "is covered with a sort of mosaic consisting of vitrified tesserae of different colours, but in which blue predominates. These are sometimes arranged in not inelegant patterns, and the grand divisions as well as the borders are entirely formed and ornamented with real sea-shells, neither calcined by the heat of the eruption nor changed by the lapse of so many centuries" (_Pompeiana_, i. 196). Another of large size was similarly decorated with marine shells, and is supposed to have borne two sculptured figures, one of which, a bronze, is in the museum at Naples. This fountain projects 5 ft. 7 in. from the wall against which it is placed, and is 7 ft. wide in front, while the height of the structure up to the eaves of the pediment is 7 ft. 7 in. On a central column in the piscina was a statue of Cupid, with a dove, from the mouth of which water issued. Cicero had, at his villa at Formiae, a fountain which was decorated with marine shells.

Fountains were very common in the open spaces and at the crossways in Pompeii. They were supplied by leaden pipes from the reservoirs, and had little ornament except a human or animal head, from the mouth of which it was arranged that the water should issue. Not only did simple running fountains exist, but the remains of _jets d'eau_ have been found; and a drawing exists representing a vase with a double jet of water, standing on a pedestal placed in what is supposed to have been the impluvium of a house. There was also a _jet d'eau_ at the eastern end of the peristyle of the Fullonica at Pompeii.

As among the Greeks, so with the early Celts, traces of superstitious beliefs and usages with relation to fountains can be traced in monumental and legendary remains. Near the village of Primaleon in Brittany was a very remarkable monument,--one possibly unique, as giving distinct proof of the existence of an ancient cult of fountains. Here is a dolmen composed of a horizontal table supported by two stones only, one at each end. All the space beneath this altar is occupied by a long square basin formed of large flat stones, which receives a fountain of water. At Lochrist is another vestige of the Celtic cult of fountains. Beneath the church, and at the foot of the hill upon which it is built, is a sacred fountain, near which is erected an ancient chapel, which with its ivy-covered walls has a most romantic appearance. A Gothic vault protects this fountain. Miraculous virtues are still attributed to its water, and on certain days the country people still come with offerings to draw it (see La Poix de Freminville, _Antiquites de la Bretagne_, i. p. 101). In the enchanted forest of Brochelande, so famous from its connexion with Merlin, was the fountain of Baranton, which was said to possess strange characteristics. Whoever drew water from it, and sprinkled the steps therewith, produced a tremendous storm of thunder and hail, accompanied with thick darkness.