SECTION L PEDIATRICS 



(Hall 7, September 21, 3 p. m.) 



CHAIRMAN: PROFESSOR THOMAS M. ROTCH, Harvard University. 

 SPEAKERS: PROFESSOR THEODORE ESCHERICH, University of Vienna. 



PROFESSOR ABRAHAM JACOBI, Columbia University. 

 SECRETARY: DR. SAMUEL S. ADAMS, Washington, D. C. 



PROFESSOR THOMAS M. ROTCH, of Harvard University, Chair- 

 man of the Section of Pediatrics, spoke as follows: 



" In opening the Section of Pediatrics I wish to express the great 

 pleasure which I feel in welcoming to St. Louis so many represent- 

 atives from different parts of the world who have come here this 

 afternoon on account of their interest in the study of children and 

 their diseases. It is remarkable that a more thorough investigation 

 of the early periods of life has for so many years been neglected in all 

 the great medical centres where other branches of medicine have 

 been so thoroughly studied and in which such great advances have 

 been made. It would seem that it should be the very beginning of 

 human life which should be first understood and worked over before 

 it would be deemed possible to understand the later and more devel- 

 oped periods of life and those periods in which retrograde metamor- 

 phosis takes place preparatory to and in the midst of old age. It is 

 a fact, however, that for some reason less interest has been taken in 

 these early periods of life than in the later ones and that some twenty 

 or thirty years ago pediatrics was seldom spoken of, much less under- 

 stood. In the last few years, however, the world has begun to ap- 

 preciate that if we would have a strong race of adults, both men 

 and women, capable of doing their work in the world in the best 

 way according to their sex, the preparation for such work should be 

 begun in the very earliest days of life. 



In accordance with this idea it is now well understood that espe- 

 cial knowledge in regard to feeding infant human beings is essential 

 to their proper development and their vigor. In response to this 

 tendency of modern thought and to the demand which the laity is 

 making for a class of men who feel the great responsibility which 

 is connected with the care of children, especial attention is now 

 given to their study in health and disease. A most remarkable 

 impetus has taken place in the study of pediatrics, new text-books, 

 numerous special journals and medical societies devoted to the sub- 

 ject of pediatrics are becoming more and more prominent and great 



