Coney Island Miracles: Live Infants

The first time I saw the Coney Island attraction billed as "Live Infants", I thought I was seeing things. But it was true. Premature babies in incubators were once a popular attraction of Coney Island, as well as many world expositions including the 1933 World's Fair held in Chicago, Illinois. With mixed emotions, I began my research into how it came to be that people paid hard-earned money to see a human infant.

Luna Park at Coney Island circa 1905. Courtesy of Shorpy.com

The man who created this popular sideshow attraction was Martin Arthur Couney, born in Krotoschin, Germany on the last day of 1869. He studied medicine with a specialty of pediatrics under the hand of Dr. Pierre Budin, a Frenchman who pioneered the use of the incubator for the treatment of premature infants. At that time in the late 1800's, incubators were being used for hatching poultry. Budin had a great idea, but hospitals were skeptical and lacked the vision to use this method of saving premature infants. 

To gain attention for his invention, Budin sent Couney to the 1896 Great Industrial Exposition of Berlin in the hopes that others would see the benefits. 

Baby Incubator Display at The Trans-Mississippi Exposition, 1898. Courtesy of Omahalibrary.org

Six premature babies on loan from Berlin's Charity Hospital, under the auspicies of Empress Augusta Victoria, were kept alive by artificial means, which wowed the crowds who paid money to see the infants. Three years later at the 1899 Greater Britain Exhibition, however, Couney was unable to borrow premature British infants for his exhibit and was forced to bring in three wicker baskets full of infants from Paris. (Courtesy of omahalibrary.org)

Baby Incubator on Display, Seattle World's Fair,
1909. Courtesy of Wikipedia
 

With crowds of amazed people at several world fairs and expositions gawking at the babies living in boxes, there was enough money for Couney to introduce the incubator to American hospitals. But the medical world still wasn't ready to accept the incubators. Parents, however, saw the incubators as a miracle and willingly handed over their preemies into Dr. Couney's care. He had already proved that the public was willing to pay for such an exhibit, and he knew that few parents could afford the medical bills of keeping their babies alive. Such an exhibit would also expose the public to the need for such an invention and perhaps enough people would goad the medical community into providing their own staff with incubators. 

With no shortage of preemies, Dr. Couney and his staff set up the permanent exhibit at Luna Park, Coney Island which you see in the photo at the top of this blog - the one that started me on this quest. And with trained staff ready to care for the babies on the road, and deal with the public, babies in incubators were exhibited in major fairs and expositions around the world until 1941. 

Baby Incubator Exhibit at the 1909 Seattle World's Fair. Courtesy of Wikipedia

But why would people pay to see babies? Consider this... in the early 1900s, most babies were still born at home with the aid of a midwife. If a doctor was available, he or she was only brought in for the difficult births - the ones we now call high risk. Premature babies weren't given much of a chance to survive and many were tucked into shoe boxes and placed on the oven door to keep warm, especially if the mother was fighting for her own survival. At the time, only 25% of premature babies survived. This was the reality of life. 

It didn't matter to the new parents that their baby would be on display in a sterile glass and metal box. What mattered was that their baby survived! 

In August 1901, the Scientific American Volume 85 Number 5 published the article, Baby Incubators at the Pan-American Exposition showing how the babies were fed through their nostrils with a gavage spoon. 

Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, NY, 1901

Dr. Martin Couney closed his permanent exhibit at Coney Island and retired in 1941. At that time, New York's Cornell University had opened its own research and training center for premature infants. By the time he died in 1950, Couney had saved approx 7,000 of the 8,500 preemies brought to him for nurturing.

And what of the survivors? How did they feel about people paying to see them? That was the question asked of Lucille Horn in the interview, Babies on Display: When A Hospital Couldn't Save Them, A Sideshow Did. Lucille answered: "It's strange, but as long as they saw me and I was alive, it was all right." For the full interview including an audio version, click here. 

Another article with lots of photos is: Survivors Praise 'Incubator Doctor' Who Put Preemies on Display in Early 1900s.


Videos on the sideshow exhibit as well as the survivors are:

'Incubator Babies' Praise Doctor Who Saved Lives  (https://youtu.be/rLBTOlrrubA)

Were Premature Babies Really Displayed in Coney Island? (https://youtu.be/5DzEMRngR1Y)




Also, the History Detectives TV show broadcast an episode called Sideshow Babies (Season 7, Episode 4), where the first segment is about a woman who was born prematurely and within days of her birth, the Chicago Board of Health took her away from her parents and placed her under Couney's care, where she was put in an incubator and displayed at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. She has in her possession a personalized souvenir cup commemorating the event. The history detective's quest is to find out if babies were really on display at this event. 


When I started the research, I was uncomfortable with the thought that anyone would make money off the exhibition of babies in a sideshow. I changed my mind however, when I read that Couney charged money so that the babies could be cared for and their parents didn't have to worry about the expense. To a Canadian, that's a big deal. The fact that all 4 of my babies were premature ranging from 4-8 weeks early helped settle it in my mind. I would have given everything I had if there was a chance to pull them through. I was blessed with doctors and nurses in NICU's that took my hand and pulled all of us through. Back in history, they did what they could as well. 

What about you? What went through your mind as you read this post? 

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Anita Mae Draper's historical romances are woven under the western skies of the Saskatchewan prairie where her love of research and genealogy yields fascinating truths that layer her stories with rich historical details.  Anita's short story, Here We Come A-Wassailing, was a finalist for the Word Guild's 2015 Word Awards. Her novellas are included in Austen in Austin Volume 1, and The American Heiress Brides Collection. Readers can check out Anita's Pinterest boards for a visual idea of her stories to enrich their reading experience.  Discover more at:

Website - www.anitamaedraper.com

Pinterest - www.pinterest.com/anitamaedraper/

Mississippi...Believe it! - Home of the First-Ever Heart Transplant

by Pam Hillman

Several years ago, Mississippi launched a campaign called, Mississippi...Believe it! I was born and raised in Mississippi, and I didn't know about so many of the amazing events and people that have occurred in my state. As a matter of fact, I'm constantly learning new and fascinating tidbits, and each one makes me proud to be a Mississippian.

For instance, did you know...

University of Mississippi Medical Center surgeons performed the world's first human lung transplant, the first-ever heart transplant and the first-ever kidney transplant?

After serving in the U. S. Army Medical Corps in early 1944 during WWII, Dr. James Hardy, a native of Alabama, worked in Stark General Hospital in Charleston, SC. Dr. Hardy became the chair of surgery at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine in Jackson, MS in 1955.

In 1963, Hardy led the team which performed the first human lung transplant at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. The next year, in 1964, when patient Boyd Rush (age 68) was dying, Dr. Hardy and his team performed the first-ever heart transplant. No human heart was available and in a last-ditch effort to save their patient, the medical team transplanted the heart of a chimpanzee, genetically closest to human heart, into Mr. Rush. Sadly, Mr. Rush died after 90 minutes.

Understandably, Hardy and his team faced severe criticism for attempting the transplant, but the ground-breaking and courageous attempt opened the floodgates for the possibility of heart transplants throughout the medical profession. The bridge had been crossed and there was no return. Three years later, the world saw the first successful human-to-human heart transpd there was no return.

While I personally haven't had a family member to need a heart transplant, I've spent my share of days waiting to hear the results of heart caths, praying for good news during open heart surgery, and watching loved ones struggle after surgery the trauma of the surgery. But because of such heroic efforts of men like Dr. Hardy over 50 years ago, and the bravery of men like Boyd Rush, I've seem many loved ones, family and friends come home to their families.

As I type this, a friend who's had stents put in before is undergoing a heart cath. Good news! The doctor's didn't find any new blockages and believe a few adjustments to his medicine will solve his problems.

Thank you, Dr. Hardy. You changed the world.

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Blood Pressure: from Horses to Humans

When you go to the doctor today, you probably think little to nothing when the nurse takes the blood

pressure cuff, wraps it around your upper arm, and proceeds to take your blood pressure. But taking one's blood pressure hasn't always been so easy. In fact, it used to be an extremely painful process.

The first blood pressure measurement was taken in 1733 on a horse. Reverend Stephen Hales inserted a glass tube directly into the horse's artery and watched as the blood was forced up the tube. Thank goodness we don't still take blood pressure that way!

The first sphygmograph (not to be confused with the sphygmometers used today) was developed over 100 years later in 1854 by Karl von Vierordt. This was the first non-intrusive way to estimate blood pressure. His sphygmograph was a series of levers that hooked to a pin which rested on the artery in a person's wrist. The small machine measured how much pressure it took to stop the blood flow in the artery.

A decade later a physician by the name of Etienne-Jules Marey improved the sphygmograph into a portable device that also included pen and paper hooked to the series of levers. This allowed a sketch of the blood pressure measurement to be recorded. The sketch would probably look something like the display of a person's heartbeat seen on medical equipment today.

In 1880, a physician by the name of Samuel von Basch developed the sphygmomanometer, which is still in use today, although once again, the device has been improved several times.  The sphygmomanometer differed from the sphygmograph because it used water inside a rubber ball and mercury to measure a person's blood pressure.

In 1896, another physician added a cuff that wrapped around the arm to the device. This addition has stuck for over a hundred years, as I'm sure many of you are familiar with the cuff that gets wrapped around your arm whenever your blood pressure is taken. In 1896, mercury was still used to measure the amount of pressure needed to stop blood flow, though sphygmomanometers were eventually adapted to use dials rather than mercury.

Finally, in 1905, Dr. Nikolai Korotkoff discovered systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and the sounds he used to discover the difference in pressure are even named after him--the Korotkoff sounds.

These sounds are still used for blood pressure measurements today, and although the appearance of
sphygmomameters has changed and they are now available in models that use everything from mercury to electricity, the basics of the sphygmomanometer haven't changed. Furthermore, blood pressure measurements have become a basic medical assessment that can give doctors insight into everything from heart disease to pregnancy complications.

Personally, I'm very thankful for our modern sphygmomanometers--and that we're not still measuring blood pressure by sticking glass tubes into arteries. (Yes, I'm shuddering as I write that.)

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A mother of two young boys, Naomi Rawlings spends her days picking up, cleaning, playing and, of

course, writing. Her husband pastors a small church in Michigan’s rugged Upper Peninsula, where her family shares its ten wooded acres with black bears, wolves, coyotes, deer and bald eagles. Naomi and her family live only three miles from Lake Superior, where the scenery is beautiful and they average 200 inches of snow per winter. She is looking forward to the release of her fourth novel, Falling for the Enemy, in January 2015. For more information about Naomi, please visit her website at www.NaomiRawlings.com.

Making a Poultice by J.Kent

Mortar and Pestle from bronze alloy - Greece

I love the history of all things medical and try to incorporate them into my novels. Little did I know that when I learned how to treat horses with salves and herbs for inflammation as a child and then wrapped the horses leg that I was making a type of poultice. However, I’m no expert when it comes to knowing all that much about the art of making a poultice, but I'm gaining more knowledge all the time because I want to incorporate it into my novels and in fact I did in my second novel.

I’ve explored the internet and I’ve found a few interesting sites I thought you might enjoy if you're interested in this fascinating subject. Here’s one that will give you a description of a poultice. http://www.healing-from-home-remedies.com/make-a-poultice.html

What I like about this video where you will learn how to make a garlic poultice http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0Bn2DbPIg8&feature=related

is that the instructor uses a mortar and pestle that was used during the Regency and long before that time but the types and styles are many. I like the picture of the mortar and pestle in the above picture from Greece.

I learned more about how to make a poultice when I wrote Chameleon, book two of The Ravensmoore Chronicles.

If you are an expert on the making of a poultice during the Regency era or if you make them today, please jump in here and comment. I’m researching to find out if anyone at Bethlem's lunatic asylum, aka Bedlam, used any kind of poultice related to mental illness. I bet someone tried it.They tried so many awful things a poultice would have been a kind relief.

Now, I’m also intrigued with alternative medicine, acupressure, acupuncture, herbs, etc. but I better save that for another time. I'm sure that the Native American Indians must have too. I’m wondering what type of cloth would have been used during the Regency and how they got the poultice to remain in place. I'm thinking these things moved easily and would slip without much effort. If you actually know a bit about using a poultice during the Regency, another time period or today please jump in and share your knowledge.

 JILLIAN

Jillian Kent loves England's Regency era. In 2013 her second book in The Ravensmoore Chronicles, Chameleon, finaled in both the Selah at Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference in romance fiction and in Romance Writers of America's prestigious Daphne du Maurier for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense. Jillian is employed as a counselor for nursing students in Cincinnati, Ohio and possesses a masters degree in social work. She is a member of the American Association of Christian Counselors and passionate about mental health, wellness, and stomping out the stigma of mental illness. You can reach her at jill@jilliankent.com and explore further at her website www.jilliankent.com.You can also find her on Twitter @JillKentAuthor and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/JillianKent

Jillian's most recent post for The Well Writer is here at Christian Fiction Online Magazine