| Birth date | December 9, 1849 |
|---|---|
| Birth place | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Death date | March 9, 1914 (aged 64) |
| Death place | Boston, Massachusetts |
| Education | Harvard Medical School |
| Occupation | Pediatrician |
Thomas Morgan Rotch (1849–1914) was the president of the American Pediatric Society for 1890–91[1] and America's first full professor of pediatrics.[2] He was the great-grandson of Samuel Powel Griffitts.[3][4]
Biography
Thomas Morgan Rotch was born in Philadelphia on December 9, 1849.[4] He graduated from Harvard College in 1870, and from Harvard Medical School in 1874.[3] He then spent two years at the Universities of Berlin, Vienna, and Heidelberg to complete his medical education before returning to Boston.[5]
Prior to Rotch, there had been no physician in New England devoted to child health.[5] Rotch was instrumental in creating a department of pediatrics at Harvard, and in 1893 he became the first Professor of Pediatrics in the United States.[5] He was also involved with the founding of the Boston Children's Hospital.[5]
Rotch invented an incubator for premature infants, which was presented to the American Pediatric Society in 1895.[5]
He was a founding member of the American Pediatric Society and served as its president from 1890 to 1891.[5]
He died at his home in Boston on March 9, 1914.[6]
Legacy
The Rotch sign is named after him.
References
- ^ Past Presidents. American Pediatric Society. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
- ^ Bloch, H. (1972). "Thomas Morgan Rotch (1849-1914), America's first full professor of pediatrics: His contribution to the emergence of pediatrics as a specialty". Pediatrics. 50 (1): 112–7. doi:10.1542/peds.50.1.112. PMID 4556735. S2CID 39892583
- ^ The New England Journal of Medicine. Massachusetts Medical Society. 1914.
- ^ The Harvard Graduates' Magazine. Harvard Graduates' Magazine Association. 1914.
- ^ "Thomas Morgan Rotch (1849-1914)". Neonatology on the Web. Neonatology on the Web. 29 March 2023. Archived 30 April 2025 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 6 August 2025.
- ^ "Dr. Thomas Morgan Rotch". Boston Evening Transcript. 1914-03-10. p. 2. Retrieved 2022-06-12. – via Newspapers.com.