One of the first steps taken by childcare concerns the power of the last century, this progress has been made possible by more accurate and thorough knowledge of food chemistry. The American TM Rotch (1849-1914) introduced the X-rays in diagnostic pediatric, is the author of the journal Pediatrics, the promoter of the collection and distribution of hygienic milk and creator of the percentage of individual food components, to be set higher or lower depending on the needs of the child. The nineteenth century saw the first specialized pediatric neurology in the fundamental contributions to knowledge of nervous diseases of childhood B. Sachs (1835-1879) and J. Von Heine (1799-1879), which describes among the first to spastic cerebral palsy , then masterfully investigated by WJ Little (1810-1894), and some cases of acute anterior poliomyelitis.
The alteration of the anatomic medullary polio and its clinical implications are investigated by neurologists as famous E. Duchenne and Charcot JM , while the epidemic nature of the disease will be determined by O. Medin in 1881. In the field of infectious diseases of the nineteenth century Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), and Robert Koch (1843-1910), by Guerin , Alexandre Yersin of Roux , of Joseph Lister and many other microbiologists and infectious disease specialists who have identified a large number of microorganisms , which today still bear their name, and have devised methods to combat them.
The most important contributions of measles are from: H. Koplik (1858-1927), which describes the presence in the pre-exanthematous, on the inside of the cheeks and lips, round spots that he named, and C. Weissbecker , proposing the ' passive immunization with serum of convalescents. The nineteenth century also recorded significant progress in terms of diphtheria , so named by Pierre Bretonneau (1778-1862), whose treatment learned the technique of ' intubation , which was introduced into practice by E. Bouchut (1818-1891) in 1856, supplemented by Armand Trousseau (1801-1867) with the technique of tracheotomy and perfected by American J. O'Dwyer (1841-1898), who the victim of his profession, died of diphtheria own contracted to assist the sick. In 1923 G. Ramon will implement the first diphtheria, however, already from the last decade of last century the mortality from diphtheria before then top with more than 70% of children affected, falling to insignificant figures on the serum therapy, Behring .
Teaching children is an Italian record, it is Louis I de Bourbon, in the Napoleonic period, founded in 1802 the chair of childhood diseases in Florence, entrusting it to Gary Ball (1766-1830). The first university teaching children in a more organized structure dates back to 1882 with the establishment of the first pediatric clinic in Padua entrusted to Cervesato Dante (1850-1905), a student in Vienna from famous clinical H. Widerhofer (1832-1901). After Padova, Cervesato founded a flourishing school pediatric in Bologna (1899), which happens Vitale Germans (1854-1919). In Rome, the pediatric teaching self as it makes its way through Louis Concepts (1855-1920). J. Parrot (1829-1883) holds the first chair of the history of medicine and pediatrics and then to Paris and making major studies on ' atresia and pseudo-paralysis of syphilis babies home.