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Abraham Jacobi was an outspoken rebel who was a vigorous advocate for better health care of children, but he was a responsible one who worked through professional organizations, using data and analysis to achieve his goals. His life is a model well worth emulating today when children's services are under attack (Table1). Born in a small town in precentralized Germany, his parents, who lived a very modest existence, were advised not to spend much money on him because he was so sickly. He probably had rickets, and his adult small stature was attributed to early malnutrition. His head, large in comparison to his body, was often described as leonine (Figure). His mother gave him the best education she could, however, and after attending several medical schools, as was the peripatetic custom then in Germany, he graduated in 1851 from the University of Bonn. Immediately he joined the Democratic revolution sweeping Germany and was jailed for “high treason” for 2 years. Clearly the rebel in him was dominant at this stage of his life. In discussing his role in the revolution of 1848 in Germany that led to his arrest, he said that as students they were galvanized to action by reading the forbidden literature of Schiller's William Tell , the story of a patriot willing to die for freedom. His actual imprisonment was not so romantic. He had befriended Carl Schurtz, who enlisted Jacobi to be a go-between for an illicit revolutionary activity. Schurtz's mission was to rescue a professor Kinkel from the prison fortress Spandau outside of Berlin. When Jacobi went to Berlin to take his Doctor of Medicine (MD) exams, he was recognized as a friend of Schurtz and arrested. His 2 years in jail were often spent in chains or in solitary confinement, but here he …
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