![]() ![]() Etienne Tarnier (Budin’s mentor), toward advances in incubation. The plummeting French birth rate spurred more than a few doctors, including M. Pierre-Constant Budin, who developed successful incubators at Paris Maternité, set the stage for Couney’s later sideshows. But he also pioneered the study and practice of neonatology in America, and some of the 6,500 or so newborns he rescued between 18 are still around to prove it.Īn apprenticeship with Dr. Raffel unearths some fascinating history: Couney lied about his birthplace changed his name (more than once) and may or may not have been a real MD. Couney: How a Mysterious European Showman Saved Thousands of American Babies, reexamines Couney’s story. The novelist Dawn Raffel’s new book of nonfiction, The Strange Case of Dr. Whether at Coney Island or Atlantic City, or any number of world’s fairs and amusement parks across America where Couney and his family set up their concession, the preemies that hospitals largely dismissed as “weaklings” got a second chance at life. “Dr.” Martin Couney’s Barnumesque showcase was their best chance. It may have been the “Strangest Place on Earth for Human Tots to Be Fed, Nursed and Cared For,” as the Brooklyn Eagle reported in 1903, but for much of the early-to-mid twentieth century, precious few treatment options were available for premature babies. Madame Recht, their nurse, occasionally wowed the crowds with a special trick: placing her diamond ring around a baby’s wrist. 7 October 1979.Tourists strolling along the Coney Island boardwalk in the summertime, circa 1920, would have heard the barkers beckoning: “Don’t forget to see the babies!” Those that heeded the call, perhaps after enjoying a hot dog or a ride on the Cyclone, paid a quarter and stepped into a room where the tiniest of infants, weighing two or three pounds each, were on display in individual incubators. "When Premature Babies were 'Stars' on Atlantic City Boardwalk." Annals of Southern Jersey History. "Young's Pier - Infant Incubators." Press of Atlantic City. Resources in the Atlantic City Free Public Library Atlantic City Heritage Collections: Couney died in March of 1950 at his home in Coney Island. The Atlantic City exhibit closed in 1943. ![]() Couney declared success and closed the exhibits in the 1940s. Later, the price was changed to whatever donation the visitor wished to make.Īs more hospitals began to develop methods for treating premature infants, and as the field of neonatology became more accepted, Dr. Admission at first was one dollar to see the infants and hear a lecture on their care. The exhibit was in place as early as 1902. In Atlantic City, the permanent infant incubator exhibit was located on the Boardwalk at Arkansas Avenue, across from Million Dollar Pier. The babies were also featured at Coney Island's Luna Park, and at a number of the World's Fair expositions including New York City's World Fair, the Omaha Trans-Mississippi Exposition, the Buffalo Exposition and the Chicago World's Fair. By some estimates, Couney was able to rehabilitate 90% of the premature infants placed in his care.Ĭouney's baby incubator attractions were featured at prominent expos and amusement parks. Couney accepted patients at no charge to the parents and the infants were placed in the incubators and monitored by trained nurses and fed by wet nurses. Hospitals around the United States began to refer parents of preemies to Dr. Visitors could watch the tiny patients as they received treatments, recuperated and grew. While Couney's intention was to demonstrate scientific advancements in the treatment of premature babies and to create a way to finance this technology by charging admission fees to see the babies, the small hospital drew big crowds. Couney, utilizing his baby incubator technology was able to rehabilitate each of the infants' lives. A German hospital loaned him several premature babies, all of whom the hospital had determined would die. Couney's first exhibit of premature infants in incubators was at the 1896 Berlin Exposition. Couney set out to prove them all wrong.ĭr. Banks were unwilling to finance production of his incubators, believing that no hospital would want the devices. Couney faced skepticism from other medical professionals who did not believe his methods would work. Couney's own daughter was born premature and lived to adulthood under her father's care. In the early 20th century, premature birth was one of the highest causes of infant mortality – in 1925, 36% of all infant deaths were due to premature birth.ĭr. Born in Germany sometime around 1870, Couney was a pediatrician and a leader in the field of neonatology who invented the modern baby incubator. ![]() ![]() Martin A Couney was not your average physician. ![]()
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