This article is only available in the PDF format. Download the PDF to view the article, as well as its associated figures and tables.
To the Editor.—
The third coauthor, Alan Poling, PhD, had much earlier written a personal letter to the editor. That note of July 3, 1985, simply indicated that he could no longer vouch for the study and that he desired advice as to how our readers could be informed; there was no mention of ongoing inquiries. At that time, as we came to understand it, Dr Poling did not feel he was positioned to provide us—or personally to pursue—the requisite detail of the evidentiary stimuli that shook his confidence, nor did he feel he was able to put his inquiry in the form of an "official" LETTER TO THE EDITOR. Such a letter—with copyright assigned to the American Medical Association— could next be circulated to the involved parties with the intent that the entire correspondence could then be published and our readers thereby directly and promptly notified—our overriding obligation in such circumstances.