1 Director Division of Health Services, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Washington 25, D.C.
The report of the discussion of the California group regarding the Guthrie test (Pediatrics, September, 1963) is an unusually interesting statement and in many ways is representative of the kinds of discussions that have accompanied td the trials of the Guthrie test since it was first proposed. The report seems to be a mixture of attempts at scientific objectivity in evaluating the test as well as justifications for the course followed in California. In this way there is expressed the basic problem which is presented to physicians and hospitals generally which, I think, explains many of the objections which have been expressed regarding the Guthrie test.