Terminology.—In this work, when we speak of “the care of foundlings,” the term is used throughout in the widest signification, to denote the general care of the children boarded out, or otherwise placed in external care by the Poor Law Boards or other administrative instruments of poor-relief. Thus we do not refer to the care of all abandoned children, nor even to the care of all foundlings, but merely to the care of children permanently and completely abandoned by their relatives. It is necessary to lay this great stress upon the accurate definition of the term, for the reason that in Germany and in England the systems by which the............