In the film Starter for 10 (which is about a televised university quiz show in Britain) there are several questions in which students show off their knowledge by identifying eponyms. One that is featured is Wernicke's area, which since it is necessary for language processing, is pretty vital to anyone who wants to compete in a quiz show!


Incidentally, the film is quite a charming portrait of student life in the 1980s.

Exciting news! A number of the paintings from my series, The Alphabet of Anatomical Eponyms, will be published as part of a new book by Dr. Kurt Gilliand and Dr. Royce Montgomery, Anatomists and Eponyms: The Spirit of Anatomy Past, from Nottingham University Press. 

My painting of Henry Gray (of Gray's Anatomy fame) graces the cover. See it here.
Gilliland and Montgomery both hail from the University of North Carolina.

If you are interested in knowing more about the use of eponyms in anatomy, probably the most complete source on the web is Ole Daniel Enerson's Whonamedit which lists thousands of body parts and conditions named for their discoverers. It even gives you an "eponym of the day", which reminds me of lists of Saints Days in the Catholic tradition. 

So, I did what any normal person would do and checked out who shared my birthday! 

It turns out that Edward Jenner (of Jennerian vaccination fame) is the best known person, but there is also a woman whose name was given to a condition--Sister Mary Joseph's nodule. Women of course, are not greatly represented in eponymic naming for obvious historical reasons, so it was interesting to read about this one.  Enerson actually has a separate list of women who gave their names to things which you can see here.

And just for the record, I share my birthday with St. Matthias who took Judas' place among the apostles.

Welcome to my web page. Please feel free to check out my new project, Palm Reading, and some of my past projects, such as The Alphabet of Anatomical Eponyms. 

For the Palm Reading project I am drawing portraits of readers, by drawing their palms and then labeling the lines with characteristics of their favourite books. 

What books are people choosing for the Palm Reading project? Perhaps not surprisingly, many of the books people choose are classics (Jane Austen is a favourite). This is convenient for me, as I have already read many of them. Some are new to me though, so I am madly reading my way through them so I can represent them accurately.  

If you want to be a part of the project click on Current Projects for more information.