August 1, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



103 



hood (1896-1903). The tendency of these 

 books is mainly practical, to spread the pedia- 

 tric doctrine as applied science. The treatise 

 on infantile therapeutics is, in reality, a trea- 

 tise on pediatrics, summarizing the author's 

 views and revealing Lis wide knowledge of the 

 literature. To the medical periodicals, Jacobi 

 contributed many papers, including his more 

 original observations of infantile disease. His 

 most enduring contributions to his science are 

 perhaps the three monographs in the Gerhardt 

 "Handbuch" on infant 'hygiene (1876), diph- 

 theria (1877) and dysentery (1877). These, 

 the products of a man approaching fifty, have 

 all the force and fixe of youth. To the history 

 of pediatrics, Jacobi contributed the most im- 

 portant American papers, notably his St. Louis 

 address (1904), two authoritative histories of 

 American pediatrics (1902, 1913), a history of 

 cerebrospinal meningitis in America (1905) 

 and a history of pediatrics in New York City 

 c(1917). In sixty-six years of active practise 

 he wrote an enormous number of miscellaneous 

 papers of the most varied kind, most of whicb 

 have been gathered in eight volumes (" Col- 

 lectanea Jacobi," 1909). These include some 

 of the wisest and wittiest discourses in med- 

 ical literature. As a pendant to the festal 

 volume presented to him on his seventieth 

 birthday (1900), it had been proposed to com- 

 memorate his ninetieth birthday with another 

 memorial volume containing a complete bib- 

 liography of his writings, to be followed by a 

 selection of his best utterances, such as Camac 

 has culled from the writings of Osier. No 

 more fitting tribute to Jacobi's memory could 

 now be made. 



In 1873, Dr. Jacobi married Miss Mary C. 

 Putnam, who was one of the first lady gradu- 

 ates in medicine (1870), and became herself 

 a famous physician. 



Dr. Jacobi was of short, slight but elastic 

 frame, his whole person dominated by the 

 large, splendid head, leonine, magisteriftl, with 

 its crown of hair, the living embodiment of 

 some great high-priest of knowledge of old. 

 The earlier portraits betoken extraordinary 

 vigor of mind and body, and even in his de- 

 clining years, his cheerful tenacity of life was 



with him to the last. There came the inevit- 

 able lines in the face, " which years, and cu- 

 rious thought, and suffering give," but the 

 expression of the wonderful eyes, subtle, hu- 

 morous, pathetic, the eyes of the physician 

 who is also philosopher, did not change. He 

 was large-minded, big-hearted, intensely hu- 

 man, his conversation flavored with delight- 

 ful banter, the tricksy humors of dainty Ariel 

 or frolic Puck. "With women and yotmg peo- 

 ple, in particular, his captivating charm of 

 manner was unfailing. If it be true that 

 " the old are natural enemies of the young," 

 he was one of the delightful exceptions. 

 With his broad background of culture, his 

 knowledge and achievement, he had ever a 

 delicate, ironic trait of genuine modesty, with 

 which any reference to his own performance 

 was inevitably tinctured, the modesty of those 

 who, in the words of the Italian poet, " con- 

 tinually compare themselves, not with other 

 men, but with their own ideal of perfection." 

 In a private letter, he mourns " my constant 

 routine work in daily practise for sixty years, 

 that kept me in solitude, away from the good 

 and great men, ever away from music and 

 literature, and away from those who called me 

 friend." His fidelity to duty was that of 

 Browning's Corregidor. Yet he was a mem- 

 ber, frequently president, of many medical 

 societies, and a constant participant in their 

 meetings. It is characteristic of the man that 

 he once gravely rebuked me for disinclination 

 to attend such meetings, although my excuse, 

 as a non-practitioner, was perfectly valid. 

 Charactei-istic also was his vein of thought, 

 spontaneous as a flight of birds, with its omni- 

 present humor, a trait which made for perfect 

 poise and sanity. His quaint remarks, at an 

 alumni dinner, about the poultry in Lohengrin 

 recall the well-known witticism of Lady Duckle 

 in " Evelyn Innes." At the age of eighty- 

 seven, he wrote: 



"When old ladies tielieve ia tlie efficacy of hot 

 chamomile tea, no matter whether they mean Eo- 

 man or vulgar flowers, in fever and in belly ache, 

 you hope that not many of that class of old ladies 

 are left. I have survived them. 



