The Importance of Pediatrics in the Undergraduate Medical Curriculum

It is a great privilege to be invited to deliver the annual address in honor of Abraham Jacobi, who is known as the "Father of Pediatrics" in the United States. Perhaps no one has ever surpassed him in his prophetic overview of this specialty.

Jacobi: Personal History  Born in Germany in 1830, he early developed his opposition to autocracy and militarism and suffered through painful imprisonment for two years, on a suspicion of sedition and similar crimes. He escaped to England where he was unhappy and unsuccessful, then emigrated to Boston. A little later, he moved to New York, where he made his impact on what was to develop into American pediatrics.In his adopted country he continued his liberal beliefs. He was a devoted Democrat but not a revolutionary. He could hardly have been antiestablishment, for he was once president of the American Medical Association. Recently, he would unquestionably