Abstract
A summary of the preventive treatments given, and the different types of diseases and conditions seen in 25 years of private pediatric practice in a small southern community is divided into 19 classifications. An estimate of the percentage of time devoted to each classification is presented. Preventive medicine, i.e., routine care of infants, preventive treatments and routine examinations, constituted about two-fifths of this pediatric practice. Granting that firm scientific conclusions cannot be drawn from this study it is the author's opinion, based on records resulting from 25 years of practice, that an awareness of a disease in the mind of the pediatrician influences his diagnosis, that the locale of a practice will make for differences in incidence of certain diseases, and that the pattern of diagnosis, as well as of diseases, changes.