The present controversy concerning the adequate provision of medical care warrants rather particular emphasis on the well recognized responsibilities and early aims of the medical profession in general and on the record of the successful accomplishment of those aims.
For pediatricians in particular two conditions have arisen which call for discussion. First, the pediatrician's field of practice seems to be somewhat in jeopardy because of a decrease in the birth rate and the better equipment of the general practitioner to care for infants and children. Second, there is a need for better training of the student and more interest on the part of the practitioner in the care of the convalescent and chronically ill child.
This is the fifty-second time that the members of the American Pediatric Society have been asked to listen to the considered opinions of the one of its number who has been given the great honor