Anecdote and Hearsay in Science: The Need To Validate Source Material

Abstract

The use of anecdotal evidence has been growing as academics promote the concept of using the most recent scholarship on a topic and downplay the use of the original primary sources in continuing analyses. In this paper, the problems of unconfirmed anecdotal evidence will be investigated against a 19th-century paper that is touted to provide evidence of traditional holistic treatments in central Africa and how these can be used in the provision of surgery for complex medicine such as cesarean sections. In particular, many authors have noted how works by individuals such as Felkin provide evidence that central African tribes were incredibly advanced and had medical skills before the introduction of medical science. Throughout this paper, several issues will be investigated that demonstrate how mythology can undermine the structure of truth and devalue scientific research and evidence creating false mythologies that build upon one another through the peer review process and create an alternative to truth based on hearsay rather than evidence.