Molluscicides for fluke control

May we, by your courtesy, reply to the letter on the above subject from Dr Urquhart and his colleagues which was published in the November 1971 issue. In so doing we welcome the use of “Letters to the Editor” in this journal as a forum for opinion. Dr Urquhart and his colleagues have accused us of “intemperate reviewing” and of having not read or not understood their paper (Urquhart G. M. et al (1970): Vet. Rec., 86: 338-45) which was the subject of our criticism. We hasten to assure them that we have spent several hours reading and discussing their paper and flatter ourselves in believing we understand it. Our criticism of it was not an instance of hasty effrontery nor was it engendered by feelings of our own infallibility. In our original criticism there was neither time nor space for a detailed analysis of the grounds for criticism and we would like to take this opportunity to define these grounds and, perhaps, to reveal our “serious scientific purpose”. It would be generally agreed, we believe, that in any experiment where comparisons between treatments are made certain precautions are necessary to produce valid results…