Safer Births

Stéphane Tarnier had a problem he was trying to solve. Babies kept dying on his watch.

Paris in the 1870s was a hotbed of innovation, dragging the rest of Europe kicking and screaming into the modern era. This included a great deal of innovative medicine, leading to less acceptance of preventable deaths—and a greater understanding of what was preventable in the first place.

Tarnier was constantly turning over the problems of infant mortality in his head. As serendipity would have it, he happened upon something that would dramatically change the survival rates of premature babies all around the world.

While looking for a break from his activities, Tarnier found himself at the Jardin des Plantes, Paris' famed zoo and botanical garden. In a quiet corner of the zoo, a zookeeper tended to a peculiar contraption cradling rows of chicken eggs. It was an incubator, a simple yet ingenious device maintaining a steady, life-sustaining warmth.

This must have hit Tarnier like a thunderbolt. If somet…