pediatrics, medical specialty dealing with the development and
care of children and with the diagnosis and treatment of
childhood diseases. The first important review of childhood
illness, an anonymous European work called The Children’s
Practice, dates from the 12th century. The specialized focus of
pediatrics did not begin to emerge in Europe until the 18th
century. The first specialized children’s hospitals, such as the
London Foundling Hospital, established in 1745, were opened at
this time. These hospitals later became major centres for
training in pediatrics, which began to be taught as a separate
discipline in medical schools by the middle of the 19th century.
The major focus of early pediatrics was the treatment of
infectious diseases that affected children. Thomas Sydenham in
Britain had led the way with the first accurate descriptions of
measles, scarlet fever, and other diseases in the 17th century.
Clinical studies of childhood diseases proliferated throughout
the 18th and 19th centuries, culmina