‘The Fool of Pest’

To the Editors:

In Richard Horton’s reply to Sherwin B. Nuland [“The Fool of Pest: An Exchange,” NYR, March 25], he quotes from my book. Readers who might want to follow this up will be stymied, for he gives no citation and misspells my name, which should be Hal Hellman. The citation is from note 9 on page 191 of Great Feuds in Medicine (Wiley, 2001). The feud in this case is the subject of Chapter 3: “Semmelweis versus the Viennese Medical Establishment: Childbed Fever.”

Hal Hellman
Leonia, New Jersey