The History of Paediatrics: The Progress of the Study of Diseases of Children Up to the End of the XVIIIth Century

Oxford University Press. London : Humphrey Milford, 1931 Original green cloth, 8vo, 23 x 16cm, xviii, 525 pp, 22 plates, 43 full page text illustrations and facsimiles. With a dedication inscription from the author to Sir Thomas Barlow, in clear ink hand on front free endpaper. As a pioneer of full time paediatrics, as the first professor in this new discipline, and as inaugural president of the British Paediatric Association, Still has been called with justice the father of British paediatrics. From Cambridge he studied medicine at Guy's Hospital in London, qualifying in 1893. Coming under the influence of Sir James Goodhart, Still studied children's diseases at Guy's and at the Hospital for Sick Children. In 1899 Kings College Hospital established a special department for the diseases of childhood (the first hospital in the United Kingdom to do so), and Still was appointed physician to take charge of it. Seven years later he was promoted honorary professor of the diseases of children, the first British chair in this new specialty. During a career lasting over 50 years, Still's list of publications included 108 papers and five books. His text book Common disorders and diseases of childhood published in 1909, met with immediate success and reached a 5th edition in 1927. Still, a children's consultant physician, founder and leader of the new specialty of paediatrics he was chairman of the National Society for the Prevention of Infant Mortality between 1917 and 1937. Although Samuel Gee (1839 1911) had redescribed congenital hypertrophy of the pylorus in 1888, it was Still who brought it fully to the attention of the medical profession with publications in 1899, 1907, and 1923. He was also one of the first to describe ADHD. In 1931 Still published his second great work, A history of paediatrics, based on his Fitzpatrick lectures to the Royal College of Physicians. It took the form of a biographical approach using the great physicians of the past from Hippocrates to Jenner as stepping stones in the development of the specialty. It remains, like John Ruhräh's Pediatrics of the past (1925), a classic contribution to the subject. Sir Thomas Barlow, 1st Baronet, KCVO, FRS, FRCP (4 November 1845 12 January 1945) was a British royal physician, known for his research on infantile scurvy. He became a registrar at Great Ormond Street Hospital, and later a physician and in 1899 a consultant. He was professor at the UCL from 1895 to 1907, initially of paediatrics and later of clinical medicine. In 1883, he showed that infantile scurvy was identical with adult scurvy. Barlow's disease infantile scurvy is named after him. He was Royal Physician to Queen Victoria and attended her on her death, and to Edward VII and King George V. He was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in March 1901, and in February 1902 he was created a Baronet, of Wimpole Street in St Marylebone in the County of London. He was President of the Royal College of Physicians from 1910 1914 and delivered their Harveian Oration in 1916 on the subject of Harvey, The Man and the Physician. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1918. This book was obtained from his home in Wimpole Street directly from the descendants of Barlow, on Saturday August 5th 2017. Impeccable association copy from impeccable provenance (see photo of Barlow's book clearance inside Wimpole Street).. Inscribed by Author(s). 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/No Jacket.