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THE SPECIALIST has been facetiously described as one who "knows more and more about less and less."
Numerous authors have pointed out—and it is undoubtedly true— that the rapid development of the art and science of medicine has necessarily brought about a division into special fields with a consequential exaggeration of the trend and a tendency toward over-specialization.
The general practitioner, if he is to remain the ideal type of a physician, has all the more reason to be on the alert to perfect himself in the different fields of medicine and to keep abreast of the progress being made in these fields.
A conscientious specialist, on the other hand, will always be eager not only to master his own special sphere but, at the same time, not to lose contact with the good alma mater medicinae or to risk placing himself in the category of seeing only "the steeple