Josef Warkany, known as the father of modern teratology—the study of birth defects—died June 22 at the age of 90 in Clifton, Ohio. Born in Vienna and a graduate of the University of Vienna, Warkany left his homeland in 1931. He settled in Cincinnati, and spent his entire career at the University of Cincinnati's Children's Hospital Research Foundation.
Warkany was one of the first pediatricians to focus on the first nine months after conception. He identified the crippling disease of acrodynia and assisted in developing its cure. Acrodynia is a rare fetal disease that is characterized by a pink discoloration of the limbs, hair and teeth loss, hypertension, and weight loss; the disease is sometimes fatal. In the 1940s, Warkany also helped prove that diet and environmental factors are a large part of fetal health. Warkany's best-known work is a 1,300-page pediatric text called Congenital Malformations (Chicago, Year Book...
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