E-Book Overview
Neurology abounds with eponyms--Babinski's sign, Guillain-Barre' syndrome, Alzheimer's disease, etc. Neurologists and neuroscientists, however, are often hazy about the origin of these terms. This book brings together 55 of the most common eponyms related to the neurological examination, neuroanatomy, and neurological diseases. The chapters have a uniform structure: a short biography, a discussion of and a quotation from the original publication, and a discussion of the subsequent evolution and significance of the eponym. Photographs of all but two of the eponymists have been included. The material is organized into sections on anatomy and pathology, symptoms and signs, reflexes and tests, clinical syndromes, and diseases and defects. The selection of eponyms was based on the frequency of use, familiarity of clinical neurologists with the concept, and the significance within neurology of the individual who coined the eponym. This volume covers some of the classic ideas in the history of clinical neurology. It will be of interest to neurologists, neuroscientists, medical historians, and their students and trainees.
E-Book Content
NEUROLOGICAL EPONYMS
This page intentionally left blank
NEUROLOGICAL EPONYMS
Edited Ly
PETER J.KOEHLER GEORGE W. BRUYN JOHN M. S. PEARCE
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
2000
OXPORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogota Buenos Aires Calcutta Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Paris Sao Paulo Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 2000 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc., 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York, 10016 http://www.oup-usa.org 1-800-334-4249 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Neurological eponyms / edited by Peter J. Koehler, George W. Bruyn, John M. S. Pearce. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-19-513366-8 1. Neurology—Terminology. 2. Eponyms. I. Koehler, Peter J. II. Bruyn, G. W. III. Pearce.John, 1936[DNLM: 1. Neurologic Examination—Terminology—English. 2. Eponyms—Terminology—English. 3. Nervous System Diseases—Terminology—English. 4. Neuroanatomy—Terminology—English. WL 15 N494 2000] RC343 . N434 2000 616.8'01'4—dc21 99-088374
987654321 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
PREFACE Be not the first by whom the new is tried, nor be the last to throw the old aside. Thomas Carlyle, "Sartor resartus est"
Medical eponyms are again in vogue, after a period of 50 to 60 years, lasting through the 1980s, when would-be-scientific doctors disdainfully rejected eponyms as obsolete. This seems to have been a feeble attempt to emulate the "real" sciences such as mathematics and physics. The medical world has now made a volte face that is curious, if one sits back and reflects on the underlying forces. We boldly suggest that it is precisely because medicine has recently acquired a scientific status that it can afford again the luxury of eponyms. We can put it quite simply: the silent revolution of molecular biology in identifying mutations, deletions, frame shifts, and the like—as the explanation of certain phenotypes—has raised the rational power of medicine to a scientific level. Of course, we can add to this other factors such as statistical sophisticaton, stricter methodologies, computerized imaging techniques, and advances in electronic and chemical technology. Liberated f