I read with great interest the article by Matteson (1). By definition (Webster's), an eponym is a word based on or derived from a person's name. Some eponyms recognize more than one person, such as Churg-Strauss and Scho Β¨nlein-Henoch syndrome. However, the more common designation "Henoch-Scho Β¨nlein purpura" ignores the correct chronology of the two descriptions. There are others that fail to acknowledge an earlier description, such as Takayasu arteritis, Buerger's disease, temporal arteritis, and Wegener's granulomatosis (WG). Frequently, however, the attribution is unfair.
As with many medical eponyms, it is quite certain that Dr. Friedrich Wegener was not the first to describe the condition of systemic small vessel vasculitis, granulomatosis, and generalized crescentic glomerulonephritis now associated with his name. The condition had been noted by Heinz Klinger and his professor Robert Rossle before Wegener. In his autobiography Wege und Nebenwege ("Parallel Ways") Klinger noted, "After getting familiar with the Institute staff, I was asked by Rossle to write a paper on borderline forms of periarteritis nodosa." Klinger's observation was extended later by Klaus Hoffmann in 1932 in his dissertation titled A Case of Granulomatosis with Changes of Arteritis, which was not published (2). In reviewing this paper, there is no doubt that it records a typical case of WG. It was during the Congress of Pathology held in Breslau in 1936 that Wegener became aware of this case (3). Therefore, it was neither Klinger's nor Hoffmann's nor Rossle's but Wegener's name that became the eponym of the disease. Historical credit may be due to accident, generosity, or persistence.