Acıduman A, Arda B (Department of Medical History and Ethics, Ankara University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey). A glance at pediatrics from the 18th century: Subhizade Abd al-aziz’s translation of Boerhaave’s aphorisms. Çocuk Sağlığı ve Hastalıkları Dergisi 2011; 53: 120-133. Subhizade Abd al-aziz translated Boerhaave’s Aphorisms into Turkish between 1730 and 1827, a period referred to as “understanding Western medicine and translation period” in the Ottoman Empire. “Fasıls” written under the title of “fifth section on diseases of children” were determined in the Beyazıt State Library, Veliyuddin Efendi Collection, number: 2484 copy of Kitaati Nekave fi Tercemeti Kelimati Boerhave, translated by Subhizade. At first, these “fasıls” were transliterated into Turkish alphabet and translated into contemporary Turkish; finally, they were compared with the original aphorisms of Boerhaave and their English translations. Diseases of children were debated in 39 fasıls/aphorisms under five sections as: mucosal secretion in the newborn, constipation, symptoms and findings related to undigested milk, parasitic infections, teething and their treatments. It can be concluded that the fasıls/aphorisms related to diseases of children in this work, accepted as “full translation from European medicine” by pioneers of Turkish medical historians, contain some information regarding diseases of newborn, infancy and early childhood and their treatment modalities according to European medicine in that period.

Keywords: Subhizade Abdülazîz Efendi, Hermann Boerhaave, aforizmalar, pediatri tarihi, tıp tarihi.