Martin A. Couney
American physician
Martin Arthur Couney (born Michael Cohen, 1869 – March 1, 1950) was an American obstetrician of German-Jewish descent, an advocate and pioneer of early neonatal technology. Couney, also known as 'the Incubator Doctor', was best known in medical circles and public view for his amusement park sideshow, "The Infantorium", in which visitors paid 25 cents to view prematurely born babies displayed in incubators.
After allegedly apprenticing under Pierre-Constant Budin, an established French obstetrician in the 1890s, Couney began exhibiting incubators at expositions and fairgrounds around In Europe, and then America. Couney is best-known for his Infantorium at Coney Island, New York. During Couney's active years at fairgrounds across America, it was widely believed that premature babies were "weaklings", who were unfit to survive into adulthood. Couney was one of the first advocates for premature babies, and his Infantoriums have become widely accredited with saving the lives of over 6,500 premature babies. Couney is additionally recognised as one of the first pioneers of neonatological technology.
Early life
Martin Couney was born Michael Cohen (or Cohn) in 1869 in the town of Krotoszyn, which was then part of German Prussia and is now Poland. Couney's cultural and professional background remain contested as Couney repeatedly changed the details about his personal background throughout his life. The ambiguity of his early life has long impacted his work and reputation.
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