- A dictionary of medical eponyms

Cheshire Cat syndrome

Related people

A medical eponym taken from Alice in Wonderland. It was first described by the British physician Eric George Lapthorne Bywaters (born 1910) in 1968.

When Alice asked the Cheshire Cat which road she should take, he asked her where she wanted to go.

"I really don’t know. I suppose it doesn’t really matter," she replied.

"Well, then I suppose it doesn’t matter what road you take," he aptly remarked.

Bibliography

  • E. G. L. Bywaters:
    The Cheshire cat syndrome.
    Postgraduate Medical Journal, Leicester, 1968, 44: 19-22.
  • M.R. Rose, A.K. Chippindale & T.J. Nusbaum:
    Laboratory evolution: the experimental wonderland and the Cheshire Cat Syndrome.
    M.R. Rose & G.V. Lauder, Eds. Academic Press, New York, 1996.

What is an eponym?

An eponym is a word derived from the name of a person, whether real or fictional. A medical eponym is thus any word related to medicine, whose name is derived from a person.

What is Whonamedit?

Whonamedit.com is a biographical dictionary of medical eponyms. It is our ambition to present a complete survey of all medical phenomena named for a person, with a biography of that person.

Disclaimer:

Whonamedit? does not give medical advice.
This survey of medical eponyms and the persons behind them is meant as a general interest site only. No information found here must under any circumstances be used for medical purposes, diagnostically, therapeutically or otherwise. If you, or anybody close to you, is affected, or believe to be affected, by any condition mentioned here: see a doctor.