If you are a doctor, one of the greatest honours to which you can aspire is to have a nightmarish disease named after you. ---- Eponyms bring color, tradition and culture to medicine and also provide a useful short hand.

(A) Hundreds of so-called eponyms dot the medical text books, enshrining the name of a man or a woman who became the first to identify some horrible ailment, describe symptoms or devise a new diagnostic test.

(B) But the time-honoured practice is under threat, judging by a fierce debate in the August 2007 issue of the British Medical Journal.

(C) Names, especially when it comes to obscure conditions or procedures, can cause confusion and are often historically untruthful, argue some of the anti-eponymists.