Abstract
To the Editor:— For those unfamiliar with the story about how errors are propagated, a reading of Stillwell ( Gastroenterology 28 :606 622 [April] 1955) would be time well spent. In a thorough, but humorous and genteel fashion, Still-well tells how the title of a Czech article Uplavici, meaning On Dysentery, was taken for the author's name in an early paper on amebiasis. One author even quoted two personal communications from this unwholesome nonperson. It might not be possible to stamp out all eponyms, but we might at least limit their creation. There is no such thing as Haff's disease ( JAMA 193 :165 [July 5] 1965). Although fish and eels from a certain bay (Haff) did give a lot of Germans myoglobinuria, this was apparently because these beasts had been poisoned by waste from nearby rayon factories. If we aren't vigilant, this may turn into another O Uplavici case.
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