Historical Tidbit: Early evidence of psychosocial effects on growth -Frederick II (13th century Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and King of Italy and Germany)
Submitted by Alan D. Rogol, MD, Ph.D
That psychosocial aspects may affect growth is at least as old as the 13th century when Frederick II (recorded by the monk Salimbene di Adam) imprisoned children and then denied them any human contact to determine if they would develop a natural language. “There were children brought up in silence to settle the question ‘whether they would speak Hebrew, which was the first language, or Greek or Latin or Arabic, or at least the language of their parents’, but all died” [Haskins CH. Am Hist Rev 1922; 27:669]. This finding presaged “hospitalism” (emotional deprivation) where long time institutionalized young infants were fed but not touched or interpersonally engaged. Mortality was near universal in some places [Bakwin J Pediatr 1949; 35:512].