In Reply.—
In reply to Dr Stocker's letter, there was no intent in my editorial to be pedantic in either of the two common meanings of the word: "ostentatiousness in learning," and "excessive concern with detail." I thought I had made this clear in the first sentence of the last paragraph of the editorial: "Knowledge of melanoma precursors and all of melanoma tumor progression is young, however, and the concepts alluded to here should not be prematurely reified." The word reified, to make a concept concrete, was incorrectly printed by the Archives as "rectified." Had this not been done there might not be a need for this additional correspondence. Other points do need clarification, however, and Dr Stocker's letter permits me to focus on some of these.
Excisional Biopsy.—
I would like to emphasize that I and my colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) do not "treat" patients with dysplastic nevi.