Should eponyms be abandoned?
BMJ 2007; 335 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/sbmj.0710346 (Published 01 October 2007) Cite this as: BMJ 2007;335:0710346
- Judith Whitworth, director1,
- Alexander Woywodt, consultant renal physician2
- 1John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia
- 2Renal Unit, Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Preston, Lancashire PR2 9HT
YES—The Oxford English Dictionary defines an eponym as a person after whom a discovery, invention, institution, etc, is named or thought to be named. Eponyms are deeply rooted in tradition and their use has long been viewed as a matter of taste. However, it is time to abandon them in favour of a more descriptive nomenclature.
Eponyms often provide a less than truthful account of how diseases were discovered and reflect influence, politics, language, habit, or even sheer luck rather than scientific achievement. Moreover, the continued use of tainted eponyms is inappropriate and will not be accepted by patients, relatives, or the public.
Eponyms connected to Nazi medicine are inappropriate
The atrocities committed by Nazi doctors are well documented1; they received new attention with the discovery that Hans Reiter, a German doctor who is remembered for his discovery of a variant of reactive arthritis, took part in human experiments.2 These revelations resulted in a decline in use of the term Reiter's syndrome,3 and a formal retraction of the eponym was proposed.4 In hindsight, the facts about Reiter escaped the scientific community only because no one had investigated the person behind the eponym.
We recently investigated the life of Friedrich Wegener, the pathologist for whom Wegener's granulomatosis is named. We discovered that Wegener had been an early member of the Nazi brown shirts and that he had been the pupil of a prolific expert on “racial hygiene.” Wegener was also wanted as a war criminal, although the reasons remain unclear.56 An editorialist regarded the evidence for war crimes as “thin but tangible” …
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