Fielding H. Garrison was one of the pioneer American writers on medical history. With his vast knowledge of medical literature he presented salient historical details in straightforward sketches and expositions. But, while he set down facts, he paid relatively little attention to trends and movements—his writings constitute a chronicle rather than an interpretation, a reference book rather than an account of historical movement. His books do not convey any dramatic play of historical forces or the slow struggle of the new against the old. We miss a sense of historical development.
The present volume reprints the history of pediatrics that Garrison originally wrote for the first volume of Pediatrics, edited by Isaac A. Abt. Since Garrison brought his chronicle only up to 1920, there would be very little point, in 1965, in simply reprinting the original monograph, unless it were done as a paperback. To be a working history of