THE ERYTHROBLASTIC ANEMIA OF CHILDHOOD

Clinical hematology is undergoing a lively development in the form of clearer differentiation of the precise types of disorder that may lead to characteristic changes in the erythrocytes—their morphology, production and destruction. Until such diagnostic features are more clearly developed and understood, progress in treatment is likely to be impeded. This does not apply necessarily to empirically discovered aspects of therapy but rather to those slowly acquired facts on which scientific advances in medical practice rest. Recently attention was directed in The Journal to the presumably mistaken widespread impression that types of anemia simulating the pernicious anemia of adults do not occur in infancy and early childhood.¹ Another disillusionment has been offered in reference to what has long been known in medical literature as von Jaksch's anemia. The original description,² as might be expected from the time it was written, was far from clear. A review of the