To the Editor:—
The excerpt from Professor Barzun's book which appeared in The Journal, Jan. 30, page 457, suggests that the overt criticisms involved may be directed toward medical investigators as well as to their subjects of investigation, but when one analyzes the charges it becomes apparent that they cannot be leveled, with any significance, at most men in medicine. Surely the major motivations for pursuing medicine, patientdirected, academic, or investigative, cannot be "travel, secretarial help, and freedom from teaching." Nor does service in medicine combine any undue "lucre with glory." Particularly at the academic level the contrary viewpoint can be easily upheld. Are most medical studies merely a "pretense of research?" The editorial on page 456 of the same issue entitled "The Intermedium of Information" suggests otherwise. Furthermore, the latter editorial refers to the practicing physician's efforts to keep abreast to what is new in medicine. Let us keep