Tea at Trianon: Victorian Baby Bottles

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Victorian Baby Bottles

They were deadly. To quote:

Various shaped glass bottles were created, all with a narrow glass mouth filled with a stopper. A length of Indian rubber tubing was inserted into the stopper, it's other end fitted with a bone mouth shield and a rubber teat.

You could buy them at your local chemist, who put them together as he thought best, resulting in a great variety of shapes and designs. However, there was one consistency among the bottles. All were impossible to keep clean and a serious health risk to babies.

The medical profession openly condemned the use of them, but this general design continued to sell well into the 1920's. For the first time, the baby could be left unattended to feed, freeing up the hardworking mother to do other tasks.

Infant mortality remained very high, with nearly 20% dying in their first year. Don't marry that percentage, because the stats of mortality in the 19th century are highly contested by today's statisticians. But everyone agrees they were high.

However, I can say sanitary conditions were dismal, bacterial infections a major cause of death and antibiotics had yet to be discovered. Mothers were strongly advised to breastfeed their own children, preferable to hiring a wet nurse, and strongly preferable to feeding with a baby bottle.

A change in baby bottle design occurred in 1894, claiming to be easier to clean. (Read more.)