Sir,

In your issue of Feb. 24 you included a letter from Dr. R. Halstead Dixon under the heading "Breathing and Coronary Circulation." In the text of this letter Dr. Dixon has inserted in the manner of a parenthesis a reference to one of Mr. F. Matthias Alexander's books, Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual, and both the substance of his reference and the subject-matter to which it is set in relation in the text give an entirely misleading conception of Mr. Alexander's work. In sending you his letter Dr. Dixon may have been motivated by the desire to do a service to work which has attracted his interest and to help his fellow practitioners and others; and you may have been motivated by similar desires in accepting his letter; but your combined actions, which have been based upon misconceptions and misunderstanding, have resulted in disservice to all your readers. Alexander's work deals with demonstrable truth, and no amount of misrepresentation may delay its spread and hinder its application when and where it is most needed.

On Jan. 28 I submitted a letter to you under the heading "The 'Psychosomatic' Approach," which letter you rejected upon the grounds of lack of space. I sent a copy of my letter to Mr. Alexander, who replied that it was "excellent" ­ an expression which when used by him indicates that the subject-matter is founded upon a reliable conception of his work. Mr. Alexander's work deals with the re-education of defective sensory appreciation which is the means whereby misconceptions and misunderstandings are reached, and his work also deals with the manner of use of the self which is the means whereby all the actions ­ including "medical" actions ­ are conceived and guided.

I am, etc.
Mungo Douglas, M.B., Ch.B.
Bolton, Lancs.