Congenital Malformations

A GREAT shift in medical interests has occurred in recent years paralleling a shift in causes of morbidity and mortality in the United States and other Western countries. In the first half of this century the medical sciences were chiefly occupied with studies of environmental pathogenic factors affecting man in postnatal life. After the solution, in those years, of many infectious and nutritional problems, resulting in effective preventive measures, a concern with pathogenic factors acting in prenatal life developed. It has become clear that many diseases and disorders that manifest themselves after birth are to a certain extent determined before . . .