What We Don't See

of Medicine and Surgery, Sir William Osler introduced the term "pediatrics." 1 Although "diseases peculiar to children" had figured in Benjamin Rush's lectures at the University of Pennsylvania since 1789, most physicians in the early 19th century did not recognize children as a distinct population with particular medical needs. Indeed, in most medical journals of this period, the words "infant," "child," and "children" figured only in case reports of obstetrical complications or in accounts of epidemic-related mortality. Osler's use of the term "pediatrics" not only differentiated physicians "specially connected with pediatrics" from other physicians 1 but also drew attention to the creation of a "special" discipline. After Osler's introduction of the term, articles entitled "Progress in Pediatrics" began to appear sporadically in the Journal from 1904 forward, and the specialty of pediatrics was accorded its own section in the Journal in 1954.