Four Log Cabin Blocks

The invention of the neonatal incubator is usually credited to the French obstetrician Stéphane Étienne Tarnier. During a visit in the 1870’s to the Paris zoo, he observed a rudimentary chicken incubator on display and realized a similar apparatus might keep premature humans from succumbing to hypothermia. His new device was instrumental in saving babies that would otherwise not have survived. Yet decades later, incubators weren’t in general use, even in otherwise progressive hospitals. One reason was the cost of the machines and the demand they put on the nursing staff. Another was a general attitude that “weakling” infants were better left to die, lest they become a burden on their families and society. Alsatian doctor and showman Martin A. Couney exhibited preemies in incubators in Berlin, London and Coney Island. Fees paid by the public to see the tiny babies paid for their upkeep. Couney saved more than 7,500 premature infants by making them sideshow freaks.