Irvine McQUARRIE

Makeup of a complete pediatric department.

PEDIATRICS is no longer regarded as a narrow medical specialty confined to the diagnosis and treatment of childhood diseases. It is more appropriately defined today as that division of medical science and practice which deals with all aspects of the physical, mental and emotional health of the human race throughout infancy, childhood and adolescence. The primary differences between pediatrics and the medical specialties are, first, that pediatrics is concerned with the whole person instead of with a single organ system or a particular region of the body and, second, that it deals in the main with persons who are undergoing continuous change of a developmental nature. Indeed, the factors of growth and development, with their peculiar impact on every type of health problem, constitute the only justification for setting pediatrics apart as a special medical discipline. The breadth of its scope and the implications of its over-all significance, not only