Shotgun Hematinic Therapy-Reply

In Reply.—  Dr Lutz's concluding remark is that my statement "the patient suffers both medically and financially" from the use of shotgun hematinic therapy is totally unsubstantiated, except by rhetoric. Yet, Dr Lutz's entire letter is unsubstantiated rhetoric, most of it erroneous and/or inaccurate.Dr Lutz's assertion that "it seems to me, in my clinical practice, that [iron] preparations that do include folic acid, vitamin C, and possibly other vitamins, seem to work much better..." is highly unscientific and anecdotal. I find it hard to accept the notion espoused by Dr Lutz that "a certain amount of empiricism is important in finding therapies that seem to work for the majority of the patients." The physician is obligated to make the proper diagnosis by finding the cause of the patient's anemia and treating it appropriately. To grope in the dark and to use shotgun hematinic therapy as a substitute for a