To the Editor:
—Dr. Cook lectured at New Kensington, Pa., Jan. 3, 1912, advertising previously in one of the local papers that "Dr. Cook himself will answer the claims of Peary and the members of the Peary party".It is with the greatest reluctance that I am compelled to answer and perhaps question the veracity of an explorer who is a member of my profession. Dr. Cook, however, leaves me no choice in the matter, since he lectured in the Columbus Theater, across the street from my office, and gives to the press a distorted version of Rudolph Franke's reception on the Roosevelt at Etah. The matter is extremely distasteful, but in justice to Admiral Peary, myself and the officers of the Roosevelt I am compelled to deny Dr. Cook's insinuations that his companion, Rudolph Franke, afflicted with scurvy and, applying on the Roosevelt at Etah for medical attention and