What's In A Name? Neurological Eponyms, Peter J. Koehler, George W. Bruyn, and John M.S. Pearce. (Eds.). 2000. New York: Oxford University Press. 386 pp., $59.95.

Extract

Neurology, like many disciplines in medicine and science, has had a penchant for naming many of its discoveries after their discoverers. This tendency became especially evident in the early 20th century, for example, when the practice of neurology was essentially confined to bedside diagnosis, and dozens of pathological reflexes, many now largely forgotten, came to be recognized by the names of the neurologists who popularized them. Such eponymic zeal has engendered controversy, however, as some have argued that it is more “scientific” to apply purely descriptive labels to neurologic phenomena. This book clearly supports retaining the use of eponyms in neurology, both because of the inescapable familiarity that many of these terms have acquired, and for the importance of the person behind the eponym. The result is a useful and readable compendium of selected neurologic information, along with a substantial amount of detail on the history of neurology.