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LETTERS: Jean M Fischer BMA members requested study of Alexander technique in 1937 BMJ 2008; 337: a1502 [Full text]

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Gratuitous muck-raking

Roderic S MacDonald   (24 September 2008)

Gratuitous muck-raking 24 September 2008
Roderic S MacDonald, Specialist in musculoskeletal medicine Ealing PCT W5 2HS Send response to journal: Re: Gratuitous muck-raking	Jean Fischer [letters 13th September 2008]refers to a letter in a BMJ of 1937 recommending research into Alexander technique. You chose to illustrate her letter with a facsimile of a small fragment of the original page which included the beginning of an un-related letter referring to the House of Lords debate on Osteopathy and its criticism of the administration of the British School of Osteopathy. Over the seventy years since then all the protagonists have died and this school has for long worked under university validation and been inspected and accepted by the statutory body, the General Osteopathic Council. I cannot see why this historical fragment that was not germain to the letter it accompanied should have been published: it has no current relevance to the respected position that this school has since earned. A cull of other letters of that vintage would turn up much that medical individuals and institutions might wish to draw a veil over but the profession has moved on and should allow others to do the same. Competing interests: I have been involved in osteopathic education for thirty years but have no connection with the British School of Osteopathy.