Syndromes and Eponyms
V. C. V.
A reader has recently questioned dropping the possessive when referring to conditions described by individuals, that is, Down syndrome vs Down's syndrome. He notes that this practice has made him uncomfortable. Since my mentor regarding this matter was Dr Vaughan, I referred the question on to him and his informative comment follows.
"This raises a point of style about which many physicians have strong feelings, which are rooted in the comfort we have in ways in which we first, as medical students, learned about syndromes and eponyms. Medicine has always been inconsistent in this style: we never gave two people possession of a syndrome (Niemann-Pick disease, Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome); nor have we always given possessive credit to other innovations (McBurney incision, Trendelenburg position, Charcot joint); nor, in fact, do all syndromes or conditions belong to the person who first described them—some belong to the patient (Christmas disease, Hartnup syndrome).
In light of these inconsistences, the style manual of the American Medical Association (Stylebook) in its 1976 revision (6th edition) recommended (page 26) that eponyms no longer be given the possive form. It takes an emotional wrench to make the change, and a little time to get used to it (Wilms tumor, Hodgkin disease), but after a while it flows remarkably easily and comfortably, conserves apostrophes, esses, paper, and space, and often comes to seem eminently reasonable (Vaughan contention). I would be pleased to see the style adopted universally.(V.C.V.
