Excerpt from The History and Design of the Foundling Hospital: With a Memoir of the Founder It is related, that when Captain Thomas Coram, the Founder of this Hospital, resided at Rotherhithe, about the year 1720, his avocations obliging him to go early into the city, and return late, he frequently saw infants exposed and deserted in the public streets; and as there was but one step in his active mind from the knowledge of an evil to a desire for remedying it, he immediately set about inquiring into the probable causes for so outrageous a departure from humanity and natural affection. He knew, what every man who studies the human heart must know - that the motive to such a dereliction of maternal duty must be beyond the ordinary casualties of indigence. He was not long in discovering the true source of the evil. He found that it arose out of a morbid morality, then possessing the public mind, by which an unhappy female, who fell a victim to the seductions and false promises of a designing man, was left to hopeless contumely, and irretrievable disgrace. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work.

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