R EHABILITATION of the cardiac is a complex process, properly initiated by medical, social, psychological, and vocational evaluation of the patient. The cardiac may be an infant with congenital heart disease, a youngster with acute rheumatic fever, a miner with cor pulmonale, an executive with acute myocardial infarction, a farmer with hypertensive cardiovascular disease, or an elderly housewife with chronic rheumatic heart disease. The various etiological types of heart disease must be differentiated in the light of increasing numbers of therapeutic approaches available. For example, the prophylactic use of penicillin to prevent streptococcal infection in youngsters who have recovered from rheumatic fever has prevented recurrent attacks of rheumatic fever and has thus enabled children to live lives nearer normal.