Luther Emmett Holt
Luther Emmett Holt (usually: L. Emmett Holt, born March 4, 1855 in Webster, New York, † January 14, 1924 in Beijing, China ) was an American pediatrician and professor. Holt was a pioneer of pediatrics and gained notoriety through his books The Care and Feeding of Children (1894 ) and The Diseases of Infancy and Childhood ( since 1896).
Life and work
Holt, son of a well -to-do farmer, was born in a small town in Upstate New York. He attended schools in his hometown and studied at Webster Collegiate Institute in Marion and at the University of Rochester, where he obtained his degree in 1875. After further studies at the University at Buffalo and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, he obtained his doctorate in 1880.
After studying Holt turned to pediatrics - a specialization that was not yet formally recognized. His first jobs were his own pediatric practice, the New York Infant Asylum in Mount Vernon and the New York Nursery and Children's Hospital.
1884 Holt was involved in the founding of the first pediatric journal of the United States, the Archives of Pediatrics, which he edited for many years even. In 1888 he was among the founding members of the American Pediatric Society, the first American Organization for Scientific Pediatrics; He was twice elected president of this institution (1897 and 1923).
1889 Holt took over the management of the Babies Hospital (now Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital ) Columbia University, which he reorganized and in the following years made it the best known children's hospital in the country. To combat the widespread stations gonorrhea bacteria, he led there a special investigations and safety measures. Other hospitals followed suit soon.
1894 Holt published his book The Care and Feeding of Children, with which he tried to popularize his scientific insights on infant care, especially for infant feeding. The work, which had actually intended Holt for the training of pediatric nurses, quickly became a bestseller and remained there until Benjamin Spock ( infant and child care) from 1946 it began to encourage mothers to their infants no longer according to strict, "scientific" routines fed, but relied on their intuition.
Holts multi-volume textbook Diseases of Infancy and Childhood, which began to appear in 1896, was for several decades the standard work of Pediatrics. In 1901 he accepted an appointment as Professor in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, where he took the vacant chair of Abraham Jacobi. He remained here until 1922.
A particular concern of Holt was the reduction of infant mortality in his adopted hometown of New York City. Because bacterially contaminated milk this was particularly high. With financial support from the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, he led, together with William H. Park by a large study of the quality of the milk sold in the shops in the neighborhood and was able to prove in 1903, finally, that a large proportion of deaths decreased in infants at high bacteria levels. The health authority of the city then led a system of milk inspection.
Holt was treasurer and vice president of the New York Academy and since 1919 President of the Child Health Organization, the American Child Health Association for 1923.
As a 68- year-old Holt in 1923 went for the Rockefeller Institute, whose board he joined in 1891, to China to lecture at Peking Union Medical College. Shortly before his scheduled return, he died there of a heart attack.
Holt was married and lived with his family on a farm in Pleasantville, New York.
Publications
- The Care and Feeding of Children. A Catechism for the Use of Mothers and Children's Nurses. New York, D. Appleton and Company, 1894.
- The Diseases of Infancy and Childhood. A Textbook for the Use of Students and Practitioners of Medicine. D. Appleton and Company, New York, London, 1896-1937. 8 books
Awards
- Honorary Doctorate of Rochester University (1902 )
- Honorary doctorate from Columbia University ( 1904)
- Honorary doctorate from Brown University (1914 )