The Webster’s dictionary

The Web . . . is a mingled yarn, good and ill together. (Shakespeare, All’s Well that Ends Well, Act 4, Scene 3) Neurology is making a slow and gradual appearance on the Internet. An informal survey of neurologists indicated that the most widely used Internet activity was e-mail. The article by Dr. Rivner1 in this issue of Neurology documents the activity of a neurologists’ listserver. A listserver is not a concept familiar to all. In essence, it facilitates dissemination of messages to a group of people with similar interests: the “list.” The difference between this and a newsletter is that any message sent to the list by an individual member is then instantly sent to all the members on the list. For some years, Dr. Rivner has supervised such a listserver—the Neurolist—and he has summarized his experience here. It is obvious from the activity on Neurolist that this is a resource which neurologists use and appreciate. Certain aspects are noteworthy. First, the international participation is substantial, making this truly a worldwide resource. Second, 70% of the messages are either case discussions or neurologic discussions, implying that this may influence how neurologists manage individual cases. In this context, Dr. Rivner asserts that Neurolist has improved medical care. This may be so, but …