this is a new sort of book, and unique. that is why i look upon the permission to write a brief preface for it as a rare privilege. writings on children are frequent. when, in 1875, i contributed, for karl gerhardt’s immense handbuch, my hygiene of the child, i quoted seven hundred treatises or pamphlets on that subject. there are now at least seven thousand of the kind, and the number of text-books on the diseases of children and infants do no longer lead a pardonable, rarely a laudable, existence. a few monographs on special subjects, or modern publications, as erich wulffen’s the child: his nature and degeneration (berlin, 1913), or the two large anthropological volumes by h. ploss, the child in the customs and morals of nations (third edition by b. renz, 1911), are praiseworthy examples of useful books. but while these are instructive they do not rouse historical interest.
indeed, the history of the child has been grossly neglected. the epoch-making works of rosenstein, charles west, rilliet and barthez, and karl gerhardt contain no history. the work of puschmann (neuberger and pagel) fills twenty pages with the history of the child in a text ofv three thousand pages relating to the history of medicine. altogether our country has been disrespectful to its best possessions, viz., the children. there was until a few decades ago not even a professional teaching of the children’s diseases in our medical schools. a regular chair was established in 1860 (new york medical college),—it lasted for a few years only. the second was in 1898 (harvard). there were few child’s hospitals or wards in hospitals until a few years ago, even in the largest cities. society, law, humanitarianism did not mind children. it is only a few months that an official publication in our democratic country carried the title; “is there a need of a child labour law?” and our civilization was humbled by medical discussion of the advisability of killing the deformed or unpromising new-born. it seems to take a long time before this republic of ours begins to work out of the ruts of semi-barbarism. and now, at last, there is a book to supply our wants.
laymen have advanced ahead of the medical profession. christ and the stoics, the clergy and the public opinion of the crusades and the christian sentiments of the medi?val church, aye, the great slaughterer and revolutionary reformer, napoleon, have called the children under their protection and benefactions.
a vast amount of study relating to primary populaces and nations in gradual development was required to learn the history of the child.vi without the history of the child there cannot be a scientific knowledge of the thousands of years of child life. nobody has given it until the author of this book afforded us the wealth of his vast studies. this book furnishes what no other work presents to us. i know of none which acquaints us with the position of the child in his social, political, and humanitarian existence in all nations and in all eras. adults and adult life have long been served by the endeavours of historians, philosophers, and psychologists. we do not believe in completeness of our knowledge unless all that have been perfected. medical men do not believe in possessing a scientific grasp of any of their subjects without an embryological basis. statesmen, aye, even politicians, of the better class, insist upon an ample knowledge of the history of their countries, their institutions, and their laws. that is how the last years of our medical and professional life in this country have developed amongst us physicians the taste for history and such books as fielding garrison has been able to prepare for us within the last year.
when i said the book before us was unique, i meant to say that it is a special monograph of the life through thousands of years of slow physical, domestic, economic, social existence of the child. no historian, no medical practitioner or teacher, surely no existing pediatrist will be without it.
a. jacobi.
new york city, december 21, 1915.
