morbilli

150 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

1. Lewak, N. : Measles (rubeola) and rubella: ( 1)

2. Greenwald, P., et a!. : Vaginal cancer after ma-ternal treatment with synthetic estrogens. N.Eng. J. Med., 285:390, 1971.

Measles, Morbilli, Rubeola, Rubella

To THE EDITOR:

After reading the letters of Dr. Lewak andDr. Ebbin2 one must conclude that there issomething seriously wrong with a so-called sci-entific nomenclature that can confuse even theelite for whose sole benefit it was in the firstplace devised. What sort of scientific terminol-ogy is this that obviously confounds rather thanclarifies?

May I suggest that we already have to handa system of nomenclature that will keep thesetwo distinct diseases very certainly apart? Mor-huh is the very ancient classical name for redmeasles and is the one generally used in Eu-nopean texts. In the United States even todaywe still speak of a measles-like rash as beingmorbilliform; the term rubeolaform I havenever seen, though it is the one that we shouldproperly employ if we are to be consistent in apreference for nubeola as the name of thedisease itself. German Measles would ofcourse still be called rubella, though inciden-tally the original German name notheln isstill widely used in Europe in a further effort toavoid confusion.

At any rate, let the taxonomists use what-ever confusing and pretentious terms they likein order seemingly to relate these two differentand distinct diseases. We pediatricians, on theother hand, with responsibility for the life andwell-being of our patients do not need tofollow the herd and should at least adopt anduse a terminology that is truly scientific in thatconfusion would be impossible-morbilli forthe one disease, rubella for the other. A goodbeginning would be for the Editor of PEDIAT-RICS to insist that this terminology be used inour Journal and the same could very properlybe adopted in the next edition of The RedBook where these diseases are listed and de-scribed.

JAMES A. OCoNNoR, M.D.Lucayan Medical Group

P.O. Box F 827Freeport, Grand Bahama

REFERENCES

dangers of the laymans confusion ( 2 ) massmeasles immunization. PEDIATRICS, 46:978,1970.

2. Ebbin, A. J. : Rubeola and rubella. PEDIATRICS,47:789, 1971.

ASSOCIATE EDITORS REPLY:

Dr. OConnor puts himself on the side of theangels by his concern about the distressing con-fusion caused by the terms rubeola and rubellato both the layman and physician (PEDIATRICS,46:978, 1970 and 47:789, 1971). His letterconfirms what Sir Francis Bacon had in mindin 1620 when in his Novum Organum hewrote: The ill and unfit choice of words won-derfully obstructs the understanding.

No one would question Dr. OConnorsstatement that we as pediatricians, with re-sponsibility for the life and well-being of ourpatients do not need to follow the herd andshould at least adopt and use a terminologythat is truly scientific in that confusion wouldbe impossible But his choice of morbillifor measles isnt entirely convincing to me. Ru-bella is fine, but why morbilli in lieu of mea-sles?

Dr. OConnor is stretching a point when hetells us that morbilli is the very ancient classi-cal name for red measles and is the one gener-ally used in European texts. Actually, morbilli,a diminutive of morbus was not used by theancients. It was not until 1693 that morbihiwas first used to describe measles. There wasno ancient classical name for measles becausethe Greeks and Romans-to my knowledge-never mentioned such a disease. Rhazes in the10th century differentiated measles from small-pox and scarlet fever but he used the Arabicterm lho,sbah not morbilli. Rhazes work appar-ently was not well known since measles contin-ued to be confused with scarlet fever andsmallpox until Sydenham in 1676 finally mm-utely and carefully described measles. UntilSydenhams time, many considered measles amild form of smallpox, hence the use of the di-minutive morbilli for measles. Shakespeare inCoriolanus, Act III, Sc. 1 writes about meazles(measles) not morbilhi.

In European textbooks-if morbilli is men-tioned-it is almost invariably in parentheses-for example-after masern ( German) , rub#{233}ole(French), and sarampi#{243}n (Spanish).

Id ask, Why not retain the term measlesrather than morbilli? After all the former isolder and better understood. And didnt Shake-

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