Developments in Pediatrics in the Past Quarter Century *

I venture the opinion that in the past twenty-five years pediatrics, both in knowledge and in practice, has made as marked progress as have any of the older services of the Johns Hopkins Hospital in the half century now being celebrated. Without making any attempt to prove this assertion, I should like to assemble certain pertinent facts most of which could be demonstrated easily from data in the Harriet Lane Home, the clinic which led in this country to the establishment of pediatrics on a scientific basis. At the outset, I wish to make it dear that I have most profound respect for what had been done in the field of child care and in the prevention and treatment of the diseases of childhood prior to the period which has elapsed since the opening of the Harriet Lane Home. But the events of the past quarter centuryt have been thrilling and dramatic, and in their unfolding my entire medical experience has been lived. Since I was a member of the first class taught in the Harriet Lane Home, one of its staff for the eight years following graduation, and associated with its present eminent director for six more years while he was at Yale, I must ask pardon if the presentation is somewhat personal and is based largely on hospital practice. So many facts are available in discussing developments in pediatrics in the past quarter century that one must of necessity assemble his remarks about a few major subjects. What I have to say, therefore, will be grouped under eight topics: Supportive Therapy, Infant Feeding and Nutrition, Infectious Diseases, The Newborn, Emotional Disturbances, Mental Deficiency, Preventive Pediatrics, and the Future of Pediatrics.