Dear fellow pedtalkers Some of the attitudes to anecdotes are surely amiss. All good science begins with observation. Someone says, "That's interesting!" and formulates a hypothesis which is then tested using the scientific method. For example, someone sees an apple fall from a tree and wonders, "Why doesn't it fall upwards?" So begins the science of gravitation. Someone sees a ship disappear over the horizon and wonders, "is the earth really flat?" and so a new field of learning is opened up. Suppose instead that someone sees a subdural haemorrhage in a child who has indisputably fallen just a short distance, and dares to challenge dogma by saying, "Yes that can happen - it isn't automatically abuse." If such anecdotal observation is not to be reported and shared, we will be so much poorer, and science hasn't a chance. Just don't assume that anecdote is truth. But it is the stuff of science. Barry Dr Barry Wilkins Senior Specialist in Paediatric Intensive Care The Children's Hospital at Westmead Locked Bag 4001 Westmead NSW 2145 Australia Tel: +61 2 9845 1991 Fax: +61 2 9845 1993 Email: www.chw.edu.au