Jacobi, Abraham (1830–1919)

German-born US paediatrician. He became the first professor of diseases of children in the USA at New York Medical College in 1860. He opened the first free clinic for children, and he was a professor of pediatrics at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York 1870–1902. He published many articles and books but a fire at his summer home in 1919 destroyed valuable documents and notes and hastened his own death.

He was born in Westphalia. After taking his MD from the University of Bonn in 1851 he was imprisoned for treason in the German Revolution of 1848. He escaped in 1853 and eventually made his way to New York City, where he established a paediatrics practice. In 1873 he married the physician Mary Putnam.