Rehabilitating Romberg

Abstract

Few Neurologists will be unfamiliar with referral letters stating that the patient has “Rhomberg’s sign” or some “mild rhombergism” (capitalisation variable), a particularly irritating misnomer for the pedants among us. As Henry Higgins the fictional Professor of Phonetics [1] observed: ‘Does the same thing hold true in India, Pickering? Is there the peculiar habit of not only dropping a letter like the letter “h”, but using it where it doesn’t belong, like “hever” instead of “ever”?’ My Fair Lady – Act 1, Scene 5, p58 [1]. Or Rhomberg instead of Romberg! So, who was “Rhomberg,” and what did he describe?