Isaac Abt was 44 years old at the time this article was originally published. A leading pediatric teacher, writer, and editor of his times, he was professor of pediatrics at Northwestern Medical School and Rush Medical College in Chicago. He served as president of the American Pediatric Society in 1927. He was a founder and the first president of the American Academy of Pediatrics in 1930. He wrote widely on a variety of topics, including floating kidneys, erythroblastosis fetalis, electric breast pumps, twins, viral encephalitis, cathartic drugs, chorea, bone marrow aspiration, pyloric stenosis, and Meckel's diverticulum. Dr Abt was particularly interested in the influence of pathology on pediatrics, noting in his presidential address to the 39th meeting of the American Pediatric Society in 1927: "a proper conception of disease processes, a valid clinical interpretation and a mental picture of disease depends upon a knowledge of morbid changes that have occurred