ROTCH 1003 ROTCH of those whose tastes were similar to his own. He did not like animals, and was not fond of children. He loved books, but did not collect, or keep, them. He used to say he had his library in his head, and, certainly, whatever he read he stored in his mind most carefully. He delved but little in other fields than the scientific, but, in that realm of never- ending spaces, his range was wide indeed. In the fields of mental and nervous diseases, medical jurisprudence, geographical explora- tion, and, most of all perhaps, in the province of editing and general authorship, Dr. Rosse's work possesses high and enduring value. The titles of some of his writings were : "Borderland Insanity" ; "Neuropathic States Involving Doubt," 1890; "The Neuroses from a Demographic Point of View" ; "Washing- ton Malaria and Politics as Genetic Factors," 1889; "Triple Personality"; "Sexual Hy- pochondriasis and Perversion of Genetic In- stinct," 1892. Thomas Hall Shastid. A Biog Diet, of Contem. Amer. Phys. and Surgs., W. B. Atkinson, Philadelphia, 1880, Supple- ment. Biog. of Emin. Amer. Phys. and Surgs. R. F. Stone, Indianapolis, 1894. Minutes of Med. Soc., D. C, 1901. Trans. Med. Soc, D. C, 1901, vol. vi. Private Sources. Rotch, Thomas Morgan (1849-1914). Thomas Morgan Rotch, pediatrician, father of modern scientific infant feeding, was born in Philadelphia, December 9, 1849. His father was Rodman Rotch of New Bedford, and his mother Helen Morgan of Philadelphia. His great-grandfather, Samuel Powel Grifiitts (q. v.), was a prominent physician in Phila- delphia, and held the professorship of materia medica in the University of Pennsylvania from 1791 to 1796. Rotch received the degree of A.. B. from Harvard University in 1870, and that of M. D. from the Harvard Medical School in 1874. While a student in the medical school, in 1873, he took the first prize of the Boylston Medical Society with an essay entitled, "The Emigration of the White Corpuscle in In- flammation." He served as medical house offi- cer at the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1874, after which he studied medicine in Ber- lin, Vienna and Heidelberg for two years, re- turning to Boston to begin practice there in October, 1876. In 1874, Dr. Rotch married Helen Rotch, the daughter of William J. Rotch and Emily Morgan, of New Bedford. They had one son, Thomas Morgan Rotch, Jr., born May 21, 1878. He died March 13, 1902, within a year after having received his A. B. degree from Harvard University. Although Dr. Rotch bore up bravely under this affliction and did not allow it to interfere in any way with his work, he never fully recovered from the blow. Mrs. Rotch, who had always been more or less of an invalid and a constant source of anxiety to him, became hopelessly ill in 1910. The severe strain consequent upon her illness wore on him heavily and indirectly was the cause of his death. She survived him but a few months. Soon after his return to Boston he was ap- pointed on the medical staffs of the Boston Dispensary and the Boston City Hospital, with both of which he was intimately connected for many years. At the time of his death he was physician emeritus to the Boston Dis- pensary and consulting physician to the Bos- ton City Hospital. He soon became identified with both the Infants' Hospital and the Children's Hospital and did the greater part of his hospital work at these institutions. At the time of his death he was the senior visit- ing physician at both the Children's Hospital and the Infants' Hospital and medical director of the Infants' Hospital. During the latter years of his life he devoted much of his time and energy to the Infants' Hospital, and his chief interest was the planning and erection of the new home for this institution known as the Thomas Morgan Rotch, Jr. Memorial Building. It was completed just before his death, and one of the saddest incidents con- nected with his career is that instead of de- livering the first lecture in the new building, as he had anticipated for many years, his funeral was held there. Rotch was one of the founders of the Amer- ican Pediatric Society and its third president, in 1891. He was the first president of the New England Pediatric Society in 1908, and was also president of the Suffolk District Med- ical Society and of the Boylston Medical So- ciety, as well as a councillor of the Massachu- setts Medical Society. He was also a member of the Association of American Physicians, as well as of many other scientific organizations. He was consulting physician to the Infants' Hospital of London, to which position he was appointed in 1902. Dr. Rotch became identified with the teach- ing of Pediatrics early in his career and de- livered the first systematic course of lectures given on this subject in the Harvard Medical School in the school year of 1879-80, the title being "The Prognosis, Diagnosis and Treatment of Diseases in Children." Harvard
