PEDIATRICS Vol. 52 No. 6 December 1973, pp. 845
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow P3Rs: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when P3Rs are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow E-mail this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My File Cabinet
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by C., T. E.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by C., T. E., Jr.

DR. GEORGE ARMSTRONG WRITES ABOUT THE DISINTEREST OF PHYSICIANS IN THE CARE OF SICK CHILDREN

T. E. C. Jr. M.D.

Dr. George Armstrong (1719-1789), one of the first of the English physicians to devote his time entirely to the care of children, and the originator of the first dispensary for sick children in the English speaking world, had this to say about the lack of concern of physicians of his day in the care of children:

If we take a survey of the different provinces of medicine, we shall readily discover, that one which happens to be of the greatest consequence to society, as the population of every country in a great measure depends upon it, I mean that which regards the diseases of infants, has hitherto lain uncultivated. I do not pretend to account for this strange neglect, nor is it to my purpose: but certain it is, that though the human species can only be preserved by taking proper care of the infant race, which is much more helpless than the young of other animals; and though a much greater number of our species in proportion to the whole, than of any that we know, dies very young; yet the care of infants, even with regard to medicine, has commonly been left to old women, nurses, and midwives, so that it has long been a common saying in this country, that the best doctor for a child, is an old woman. . . .

I know there are some of the physical tribe who are not fond of practicing among infants; and I have heard an eminent physician say, that he never wished to be called in to a young child; because he was really at a loss to know what to order for it.