that the hospitals which have developed the diagnostic phase of medicine so extensively may develop also the therapeutic phase, but it seems that the tendency is not that way. Outside of special therapeutic procedures, such as operations, etc., treatment will be largely in the hands of the general practitioner. Successful treatment in the case of many diseases must be applied over a considerable period of time. It is only the general practitioner with his continuous surveys, whoi can record the actual results and make proper deductions therefrom. It seems to me that in the line of treatment there are tremendous opportunities for investigation on the part of the general practitioner.Let us take the single illustration of the amount of exercise which cardiac cases should take. Obviously the hospitalized cardiac case is out of the question. If the hospitalized cardiac case recovers sufficiently to go home and resume ordinary life to a greater or less extent, he comes under the charge of the practitioner, and joins an already large group of cardiac cases with which any practitioner is always familiar. These cases will be under the observation of a general practitioner for a period of many years. They offer opportunities for carefully recorded data which, would be of inestimable value to the medical profession. There is, perhaps, a tendency among medical men to assume that the dictum of rest in a cardiac case has been somewhat overemphasized, but there are at the present time no sufficient data upon which to justify that assumption. The general practitioners could contribute tremendously important data upon that particular point. I have, perhaps, given sufficient illustrations to indicate my general suggestions. I have not attempted to outline the definite shape and scope of the investigations which might be carried on by the general practitioner. Bach practitioner will find readily available, ample material so that he may undertake the kind of investigation which his interest and his material indicate. I realize fully, as I have said before, that general practitioners are busy men ; that all too often every moment is devoted to urgent matters which cannot be postponed, but I have not attempted to make out of the general practitioner a laboratory worker, but have tried to indicate to him how he can utilize the already existing opportunities and how he can assist in the development of these facilities for his own advantage. I have tried to show that particularly in the study of early disease, and in the treatment of chronic disease, the general practitioner has a vantage position in which he has unexcelled opportunities. I have tried to outline some of the requisites which seem to me to be important in the utilization of his material for investigation. I would like to repeat my emphasis upon the keeping of records, the utilization of existing laboratory facilities, and lastly, the cultivation of a viewpoint which will tend toward investigation and which will progressively cease to counteIn a recent issue of this Journa...
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