Disease Numbers

Mankind is subject to 20,000-odd diseases. Remembering and keeping straight the names of 20,000-odd diseases keeps the medical profession busy. Last week a National Conference on Nomenclature of Disease met in Manhattan and considered a numerical system to make it easier for one doctor to know exactly what another is talking about. Current naming systems are confusing because one system calls an ailment after its discoverer, as Pott's Disease; another system calls the same disease according to the causative agent and the part affected, as tuberculosis of the spine; a third according to the pathological findings and the part affected, as vertebral caries. They all mean the same.

The proposed system numbers the anatomical site of the disease, and the cause thereof. Identified first is the body part, then the cause. If the cause is unknown, the effect of the disease is noted. Thus: the digestive tract is numbered 6, the stomach (a subdivision of the digestive tract) 64; 2 is a disease due to intoxicants, 3 identifies alcohol as the intoxicant. Hence 64-23 precisely describes digestive tract-stomach-poisoning by alcohol, or what is otherwise called alcoholic gastritis.

The numbering system will not go into effect for a year or more. Last week the Conference turned its recommendations over to medical specialists, who will codify every disease within their knowledge. When they have cataloged, renamed and numbered all, certain hospitals will practice with the new nomenclature. Chronic invalids could look forward to entertaining themselves with the numerological rigmarole of their numerous ailments; to swapping anecdotes or "stumping" each other on 64-309 (penetrating wound of the stomach) or 612-13 (fungus-ringworm-disease of the tongue).

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