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• My Outdated Fondness for Neurological Eponyms
  Sheldon Benjamin
  Published on: 18 December 2024
• On first looking into Warren’s eponyms.
  Andrew Chancellor
  Published on: 17 November 2024

• Published on: 18 December 2024

  My Outdated Fondness for Neurological Eponyms

  • Sheldon Benjamin, Neuropsychiatrist UMass Chan Medical School, Worcester MA, USA

  I cannot recall having enjoyed reading a neurology paper quite as much as I enjoyed reading Jason Warren's eloquent exposition on the pros and cons of eponyms in neurology. I was moved to read many of the references cited including Stigler's 1980 paper on his "law of eponymy" that undermines the entire notion of eponymous diseases.

  But despite my rational understanding that Frontotemporal Dementia has traveled a great distance from Arnold Pick to 3R-tauopathies; and that Julius Hallervorden and Hugo Spatz, who used murdered victims of the Nazis in their experiments, deserved to have their names stripped from their eponymous disease renamed as Pantothenate Kinase Associated Neurodegeneration (PKAN), I still appreciate most neurological eponyms. I appreciate them for a reason that Warren did not list. Throughout my career it has been curiosity about the origin of neurological eponyms that has led me to learn from and be inspired by the work of the many brilliant neurologists, psychiatrists, neuropathologists and neuropsychologists whose names became associated with these syndromes or observations, regardless of whether they were truly the first to describe them. Often it is the stories of our predecessors through which we inspire our students. I will certainly call a 3R-tauopathy a 3R-tauopathy in teaching my students but I might also digress and tell a brief tale of Arnold Pick of Prague, noting that he did not actually describe the intracell...

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  I cannot recall having enjoyed reading a neurology paper quite as much as I enjoyed reading Jason Warren's eloquent exposition on the pros and cons of eponyms in neurology. I was moved to read many of the references cited including Stigler's 1980 paper on his "law of eponymy" that undermines the entire notion of eponymous diseases.

  But despite my rational understanding that Frontotemporal Dementia has traveled a great distance from Arnold Pick to 3R-tauopathies; and that Julius Hallervorden and Hugo Spatz, who used murdered victims of the Nazis in their experiments, deserved to have their names stripped from their eponymous disease renamed as Pantothenate Kinase Associated Neurodegeneration (PKAN), I still appreciate most neurological eponyms. I appreciate them for a reason that Warren did not list. Throughout my career it has been curiosity about the origin of neurological eponyms that has led me to learn from and be inspired by the work of the many brilliant neurologists, psychiatrists, neuropathologists and neuropsychologists whose names became associated with these syndromes or observations, regardless of whether they were truly the first to describe them. Often it is the stories of our predecessors through which we inspire our students. I will certainly call a 3R-tauopathy a 3R-tauopathy in teaching my students but I might also digress and tell a brief tale of Arnold Pick of Prague, noting that he did not actually describe the intracellular tangled tau bodies that bear his name but he did originate the description of reduplicative paramnesia.1

  Pick A. Clinical studies. Brain. 1903 Jan 1;26(2):242-67

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  Conflict of Interest:
  None declared.

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• Published on: 17 November 2024

  On first looking into Warren’s eponyms.

  • Andrew Chancellor, Neurologist Tauranga Hospital NZ

  It is such a pleasure to read Prof Warren’s paper, “Neurological Eponyms? Take Your Pick.” In a journal renowned for offering neurologists both scholarly entertainment and useful data, his contribution is an exemplar.

  Prof Warren’s eloquent account, which modestly acknowledges earlier forays into the debate “Eponyms good or bad?”, presents a pastiche, historiography and statistical overview of a neurological subset, and proposes a definition of the ideal eponym, which, I suggest, might henceforth be known as ‘The Warren criteria.’

  The table of more than 170 eponyms (I did not tally them myself) sets a precedent as the largest in our journal’s history. I shall send it to my amanuensis to assist with the typography of dictation – a process Prof Warren highlights as hazardous for their correct use.

  The content promises many rabbit holes to tempt ventures in idle moments. As a starter, I could not resist looking up Brueghel syndrome, and his painting of a yawning older man, eyes closed. Unsure of the distinction from Meige’s syndrome, which also fails the Warren criteria as unhelpful, the literature soon reveals splitters advocating both eponyms be preserved.

  What of Williams Hurst’s acute haemorrhagic encephalomyelitis and a second New Zealander for this roll of honour, William Alexander - whose leukodystrophy with Rosenthal fibres (yet another eponym) bears his name? No doubt others will lament missing individuals, as the author warns.

  U...

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  It is such a pleasure to read Prof Warren’s paper, “Neurological Eponyms? Take Your Pick.” In a journal renowned for offering neurologists both scholarly entertainment and useful data, his contribution is an exemplar.

  Prof Warren’s eloquent account, which modestly acknowledges earlier forays into the debate “Eponyms good or bad?”, presents a pastiche, historiography and statistical overview of a neurological subset, and proposes a definition of the ideal eponym, which, I suggest, might henceforth be known as ‘The Warren criteria.’

  The table of more than 170 eponyms (I did not tally them myself) sets a precedent as the largest in our journal’s history. I shall send it to my amanuensis to assist with the typography of dictation – a process Prof Warren highlights as hazardous for their correct use.

  The content promises many rabbit holes to tempt ventures in idle moments. As a starter, I could not resist looking up Brueghel syndrome, and his painting of a yawning older man, eyes closed. Unsure of the distinction from Meige’s syndrome, which also fails the Warren criteria as unhelpful, the literature soon reveals splitters advocating both eponyms be preserved.

  What of Williams Hurst’s acute haemorrhagic encephalomyelitis and a second New Zealander for this roll of honour, William Alexander - whose leukodystrophy with Rosenthal fibres (yet another eponym) bears his name? No doubt others will lament missing individuals, as the author warns.

  Uthoff’s symptom fulfils the Warren criteria as an ‘helpful’ eponym – a) relevant to practice b) a discrete entity and c) difficult to capture succinctly in an alternative form - all are required to qualify as helpful. Feeling a little deflated by the omission of this favourite when discussing a patient’s Uthoff’s phenomenon with a student, this paper is commended as a handy resource (keep your Practical Neurology search tab at the ready), rather than an endless list - to check the provenance of the next eponym to roll off the tongue.
  Prof Warren suggests that such an eponym ‘pageant’ – or perhaps a rich tapestry – ‘belabours’ our students, but it also cultivates an appreciation of the history of neurological nosology. I recall, in the late 1980s, the struggle to recognise and define Pick’s disease, as the frontotemporal dementia syndromes were being reformulated. I applied the diagnosis to an uncle’s illness and to this day, the family use this eponym as helpful - for some at least.

  Wordsmiths will appreciate this paper. ‘Concatenated/ion” I may use when describing some patients’ histories. Prof Warren understands, more than most, the tragedy of language degraded by disease. Hence it is pleasing to read his contribution to the revival of less commonly used words. Together with the syntax, biblical and poetic allusions, this paper indubitably deserves the accolade of a word degraded by science – Literature.

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  Conflict of Interest:
  None declared.

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