The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Jacobi, Abraham

JACOBI, jạ'-kō'bĭ, Abraham, American physician: b. Hartum, Westphalia, 6 May 1830. He was educated at the universities of Greifswald, Göttingen and Bonn, and was graduated as M.D. from the latter in 1851. Those were years of revolutionary ferment in Germany and Jacobi, becoming identified with the movement, was imprisoned for ‘high treason’ at Berlin and Cologne (1851-53). In 1853 he settled in practice in New York; where his abilities soon brought him into notice. He was appointed professor of diseases of children at the New York Medical College ([1860-65) and held a similar chair in the medical department of the University of the City of New York (1865-70). Some years later he became professor of the diseases of children at the College of Physicians and Surgeons. He held many important appointments, and was president of the New York State Medical Society (1882); of the New York Academy of Medicine (1885-89); in 1896 was president of the Association of American Physicians and in 1912 president of the American Medical Association. In 1900 his 70th birthday was made the occasion of a public demonstration in his honor. Among his works are ‘Dentition and its Derangements’ (1862); ‘Infant Hygiene’ (1873); ‘Diphtheria’ (1880); ‘Therapeutics of Infancy and Childhood’ (1895); ‘Aufsätze, Vorträge, und Reden’ (1893); ‘Collectanea Jacobi’ (8 vols., 1909).