The origins, development, and goals of adolescent medicine.

This essay offers the author's recollections and opinions on such topics as when and why an interest in adolescents' medical care originated, under what circumstances those developments occurred which preceded and soon followed the recognition of Adolescent Medicine by medical schools and hospitals, and the goals of those physicians who pursued that interest. It attempts to recount and document the events, circumstances, persons, and groups of people associated with the emergence and early development of this venture into the medical care of yet another age-group.