Attempts to define the remedial field often lose more than they gain in elaboration. Once stripped of the categories – “mental health,” “corrections,” “retardation;” unen­cumbered by the labels – “multi-problem family,” “emotionally disturbed child,” “juvenile offender;” and liberated from the technical jargon – “psycho-social diagnosis,” “therapeutic intervention,” the remedial field may be seen in its essence: which is, quite simply, people helping people.

Physicians frequently have had important parts in National Conferences, but seldom as physicians and almost never as bridging persons between medicine and social welfare. For instance, in the 1932 Conference Dr. ‘Richard Cabot gave the presidential address and Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur was one of the principal speakers. However, Dr. Cabot, who was somewhat out of step with some of his medical colleagues, spoke more as the founder of medical social work than as a representative of the medical profession, while Dr. Wilbur, past president of the American Medical Association, formerly dean of one of the leading medical schools in the country, and at the time chairman of the precedent-setting Com­mittee on the Costs of Medical Care, spoke in his capacity as Secretary of the Interior, a political appointment under President Hoover, and only mentioned medical concerns in passing in his address on the United States Children’s Bureau.