Beethoven (Muss es sein? Es muss sein!)

"The child is father of the man" is the philosophy of the paediatrician, hence the recent trend of intense interest in child development, which embraces the study of factors which influence the growth of the body, mind, personality and spirit from conception to maturity and ultimate achievement. As practitioners of medicine it is natural that much of our effort should be used in the diagnosis and care of those who have little potential or fail to reach their optimum in few or many respects. By contrast, how rarely do we interest ourselves in the development of the highly gifted, and the genetic and environmental influences that lead the rare genius to the achievement of excellence!