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 wards6 in hospitals until a few years ago, even in the largest cities. Society, law, humanitarianism7 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 humbled9 by medical discussion of the advisability of killing10 the deformed11 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.
Laymen12 have advanced ahead of the medical profession. Christ and the Stoics13, the clergy14 and the public opinion of the Crusades and the Christian15 sentiments of the Medi?val Church, aye, the great slaughterer16 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 humanitarian8 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 Garrison17 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 monograph4 of the life through thousands of years of slow physical, domestic, economic, social existence of the child. No historian, no medical practitioner18 or teacher, surely no existing pediatrist will be without it.
A. Jacobi.
New York City, December 21, 1915.
点击收听单词发音
1 hygiene | |
n.健康法,卫生学 (a.hygienic) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 treatises | |
n.专题著作,专题论文,专著( treatise的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 monographs | |
n.专著,专论( monograph的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 monograph | |
n.专题文章,专题著作 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 anthropological | |
adj.人类学的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 wards | |
区( ward的名词复数 ); 病房; 受监护的未成年者; 被人照顾或控制的状态 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 humanitarianism | |
n.博爱主义;人道主义;基督凡人论 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 humanitarian | |
n.人道主义者,博爱者,基督凡人论者 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9 humbled | |
adj. 卑下的,谦逊的,粗陋的 vt. 使 ... 卑下,贬低 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10 killing | |
n.巨额利润;突然赚大钱,发大财 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11 deformed | |
adj.畸形的;变形的;丑的,破相了的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12 laymen | |
门外汉,外行人( layman的名词复数 ); 普通教徒(有别于神职人员) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
13 stoics | |
禁欲主义者,恬淡寡欲的人,不以苦乐为意的人( stoic的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
14 clergy | |
n.[总称]牧师,神职人员 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
15 Christian | |
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
16 slaughterer | |
屠夫,刽子手 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
17 garrison | |
n.卫戍部队;驻地,卫戍区;vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
18 practitioner | |
n.实践者,从事者;(医生或律师等)开业者 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
欢迎访问英文小说网 |