BAGINSKY, ADOLF ARON

BAGINSKY, ADOLF ARON (1843–1918), German physician and founder of modern pediatrics. Baginsky was born in Silesia and in 1881 joined the faculty of Berlin University, being appointed associate professor in 1892. In 1890, with the assistance of Virchow, he founded the children's hospital, Kaiser und Kaiserin Friedrich Kinderkrankenhaus, of which he became director. His main contributions to pediatrics were in the fields of infectious diseases, the study of milk, and hygiene. Baginsky was a leader in the movement for the promotion of child welfare and his services in this field won him orders and decorations from many governments. He was founder and editor of the pediatric journal, Archiv fur Kinderheilkunde (1879). His works included Lehrbuch der Kinderheilkunde (1982; "Textbook of Pediatrics," translated into a number of languages), Handbuch der Schulhygiene ("Manual on School Hygiene," 1877), and Praktische Beitraege zur Kinderheilkunde ("Practical Contributions to Pediatrics," 1880–84), as well as many articles on physiological and chemical subjects.

Baginsky was an active member of the Jewish community in Berlin and of the movement to check antisemitism in Germany. He also wrote an interesting essay on the significance of hygiene in Mosaic legislation in which he expresses his admiration for the hygienic laws in the Bible.

bibliography:

S.R. Kagan: Jews in Medicine (1952), 357–8.

[Suessmann Muntner]