I'm not sure if Piscator has an email address to join in this
discussion, but in 1996 he wrote:
> Down's syndrome or Down syndrome? Graves' disease or Graves disease?
> Those of you who get your rocks off on such fine distinctions will be
> enthralled by a learned discussion by linguist and language consultant
> Janet Byron Anderson, also in J R Coll Physns Lond (1996; 30: 174-7).
> She concludes (I think this is a conclusion) with the stirring words:
> 'On structural, semantic and historical grounds, non-possessive
> medical eponyms find support, since the language is hospitable to
> unmarked noun modifiers functioning attributively.' That sounds to
> Piscator like one of the great chat-up lines of all time, but his
> monastic existence precludes the experiment. It must worth a try next
> time you're down the wine bar, though.
Jonathan
On Tuesday, Jan 13, 2004, at 17:03 Europe/London, gordon.challand wrote:
> Dear John
> It's I think a purely a matter of convention to apostrophise first
> describers of a medical condition. In analytical chemistry we usually
> use
> the opposite but equally valid convention: the Jaffe reaction; the
> Bolton-Hunter reagent (but I have heard people using 'Jaffe's
> reaction').
> The origin may be based etymologically on the fact that in chemistry,
> the
> author describes something he has invented, whereas in medicine the
> author
> is usually describing a subject he has observed. Has anyone out there
> any
> idea of when Bright's disease, or Bence-Jones's protein (altho' in my
> chemical analogy this should perhaps be called 'the Bence-Jones
> protein')
> was first described as such?
> Best wishes
> Gordon
John Whitfield wrote:
> I guess by now everyone knows more than they really need to about
> Pendred's
> syndrome. But more generally, there is a useful online medical
> dictionary
> at
> http://cancerweb.ncl.ac.uk/cgi-bin/omd?action=Home&query=
>
> And yes, it gives a brief definition of Pendred's syndrome.
>
> But should we call it Pendred's syndrome or Pendred syndrome? Now
> there's a
> point for discussion. Down syndrome or Down's syndrome? Huntington
> disease
> or Huntington's disease?
>
> John Whitfield
> Clinical Biochemistry
> Royal Prince Alfred Hospital
> Sydney, Australia
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