Even the most forward-looking medical man must admit that for a long time to come, the main function of the medical profession will be to heal, relieve and comfort those who are sick or in distress, and plans which are devised to readjust the relationship between doctors and laymen must be based primarily on this consideration. New needs and opportunities are to be recognized and met as well as possible, but the chief thing is to be certain that in the name of the newer “Service” with its capital “S,” nothing of the old-fashioned, modest but effective service of doctor to patient is lost. I do not intend to suggest that relations between the layman and the medical profession should remain in the future exactly as they have been in the past. It is perfectly obvious that the manifold developments which have so increased the complexity of the practice of medicine make certain readjustments necessary, but it has become correspondingly clear that we must “watch our steps.” The protests of patients and their families or, to their credit, more often the muffled voice of their complaint, that they are no longer happy or contented in their relations with the medical profession are becoming more and more frequent. “I don’t think my case was handled right” is a phrase very commonly heard from patients who have had a long and varied medical experience, and curiously enough one is quite apt to find that it does not refer to the actual results of treatment. The modern layman of the educated, and often of the comparatively uneducated, classes, seems to have become surprisingly well aware of the fact that specific “cures” are not available for every disease or every symptom, and he is usually remarkably lenient in what he demands in the way of therapeutic results. His dissatisfaction has to do more with the general management of the case in which social and economic considerations are quite as important as its scientific aspects. He has attempted to get the best care, without regard to cost, and he finds that he has wasted his time and money going from one physician to another without finding anyone who can straighten out his troubles, or, what is more significant, is deeply interested in them.