title: The value of an infant: the rise of paediatrics in Australia, 1880-1910.
abstract: Between 1880 and 1910 paediatrics in Australia developed not merely as a response to Enlightenment philosophical understandings of the child as precious and special, but as part of a wider demand for reproduction and population. A brief sketch of the international context will situate the specific Australian conditions, which include education, professionalisation and the emerging concept of infant mortality. A level of general specialisation within medicine was necessary for the development of paediatrics, in addition to a general and new interest in child health, which was a response to the social, political and economic needs of the emerging nation.
authors.affiliation: Macquarie University.
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Featherstone
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000266:history*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric / Q000266:history*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007226:Infant Mortality / Q000266:history; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000266:history*