Nils Rosén von Rosenstein - The Father of Paediatrics

Abstract

One of the pioneers in medical sciences, in the modern sense of the word, was a young doctor in Uppsala, Nils Rosén – or Nils Rosén von Rosenstein (1706-1773) as he was later called as a nobleman. Already in the 1730's he devoted himself in successful empirical research, a strong interest in medical education and many important clinical experiences.

This made him one of the foremost physicians of his time, Nordens Store Arkiater, also called The Hippocrates of the Modern Times. He has also, by right been acknowledged as The Father of the Swedish Medical Training.

Today his name is especially well known by specialists in children´s diseases. Paediatricians all over the world honour Nils Rosén von Rosenstein as the Father of Paediatrics (Wallgren 1964).

The leading question is why a scientifically learned academician as Nils Rosén in the eighteenth century started with research works concerning children and their needs and their possibilities to survive. At this time, physicians as well as laymen seemed to have thought that it was just as inevitable that 50 per cent of all the living born children died without reaching an adult age, as that we all finally have to die.

The challenging question is: Can we here an now within our work learn something for the future by this very pioneer in medical sciences concerning the medical problems in our own country as well as in the developing countries.