In our collection we have endeavored, so
far as possible, to cite similar cases from the older and from
the more recent literature.
This connection suggests the question of credibility in general.
It need hardly be said that the lay-journalist and newspaper
reporter have usually been ignored by us, simply because
experience and investigation have many times proved that a
scientific fact, by presentation in most lay-journals, becomes in
some mysterious manner, ipso facto, a scientific caricature (or
worse !), and if it is so with facts, what must be the effect
upon reports based upon no fact whatsoever? It is manifestly
impossible for us to guarantee the credibility of chronicles
given. If we have been reasonably certain of unreliability, we
may not even have mentioned the marvelous statement. Obviously,
we could do no more with apparently credible cases, reported by
reputable medical men, than to cite author and source and leave
the matter there, where our responsibility must end.
But where our proper responsibility seemed likely never to end
was in carrying out the enormous labor requisite for a reasonable
certainty that we had omitted no searching that might lead to
undiscovered facts, ancient or modern.
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