Sir.—I recently read the article by Theodor et al, which appeared in the November issue of the Journal (128:727, 1974), and was stimulated to express some concerns raised by the publishing of this article.
In four pages the authors described what to them was a previously unknown entity, possibly a new disease, but certainly with no definitive diagnosis. It seems to me that in this age of paper shortages and with a plethora of manuscripts, four pages could be better spent. Certainly, there may be some need to inform readers of possible new entities; however, it would seem to me that this could be done in more appropriate fashions, such as a letter to the editor, a brief recording, use of tables for brevity, or some similar brief communication. Alternatively, this Journal and other journals could perhaps monthly, or every other month, publish brief summaries of cases such as