Avi Ohry
Tel Aviv, Israel

Laurent Grimod de La Reynière^1,2 (1758–1837) studied law in Lausanne and on returning to Paris made his name by writing reviews for the Journal des théâtres in 1777–78 and some for the scandal chronicle Correspondence secrète, politique et littéraire. He survived the French revolution “partly because Danton and Robespierre liked him, even though he had publicly declared himself a Royalist.”^3,4 After the Revolution he became the public critic reviewer of the many restaurants that grew under the Napoleonic regime. He pioneered criticism of food and cookery, inventing the gastronomic guidebook Almanach des Gourmands, the gastronomic treatise Manuel des Amphitryons, and the gourmet periodical Journal des Gourmands et des Belles.

Grimod was born with deformed hands, likely a congenital deformity now known as Cenani-Lenz syndactylism. He was handicapped by his fingers being fused together and he required prostheses—dual assemblages of leather, parchment, and papier-mâché—in order to eat or write.⁵

The syndrome in question, the Cenani-Lenz syndrome, is an autosomal recessive congenital malformation syndrome manifested by several abnormal developments of the bones of the hands and feet, fusions, shortenings, dislocations, and disorganization of the metacarpal and phalangeal bones, of the radius and ulna. It is named after medical geneticists Asim Cenani and Widukind Lenz.^6,7

Asim Cenani⁷ (1931–2020) was a distinguished Turkish pediatrician and geneticist affiliated with the University of Istanbul. He died during the COVID-19 epidemic. Widukind Lenz⁸ (1919–1995) was a German pediatrician, medical geneticist, and dysmorphologist, among the first (1961) to recognize thalidomide syndrome malformations resulting from a mother’s exposure to the drug during pregnancy. He studied medicine from 1937 to 1943, was a group leader in the Hitlerjugend and the Socialist German Students’ League, and became an active member of the SA. He worked as a physician in Luftwaffe hospitals during World War II, then in a prisoner-of-war camp in England, became physician-in-chief of the Eppendorfer Kinderklinik in 1952, and was named chair of pediatrics at the University of Hamburg in 1961. He became director of the Institute of Human Genetics in Münster in 1965. It has been argued that the name of the eponym be changed because of his earlier Nazi affiliations.⁹

References

1. Ohry A. “On Doctors, Nutrition, Diets, Cookery and Restaurants.” Vesalius (Acta Internationales Historiae Medicinae) 2020; 26(2):45- 64.
2. “Grimod de La Reynière.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimod_de_La_Reyni%C3%A8re
3. “Grimod de La Reynière.” Cook’s Info. https://www.cooksinfo.com/grimod-de-la-reyniere
4. Ohry A. “Ohry-Kossoy K. Georges Couthon: a paralysed lawyer and leader of the French Revolution. Paraplegia 1989;27(5):382-4.
5. Lauren Klein. “2. Appetite: Eating, Embodiment, and the Tasteful Subject” in An Archive of Taste: Race and Eating in the Early United States. University of Minnesota Press Library, December 17, 2020. https://manifold.umn.edu/read/an-archive-of-taste/section/fe51b975-6e1c-4e77-99cb-ebe5aedbe609
6. “Cenani–Lenz syndactylism.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cenani%E2%80%93Lenz_syndactylism
7. “Asim Cenani.” WhoNamedIt? https://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/1913.html
8. “Widukind Lenz.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widukind_Lenz
9. Ohry A. “Should we delete and change medical eponyms named after Nazi doctors?” Harefuah Aug 2019;158(8):509-10. Hebrew.