The development of a uniform nomenclature of disease in the United States is comparatively recent. In the late twenties, each large teaching center employed a system of its own origination, no one of which met more than the immediate needs of the local institution. Despite their local origins, for lack of suitable alternatives, these systems were spread in use throughout the nation, ordinarily by individuals who had been trained in a particular center, hence had become accustomed to that special system of nomenclature.
Modifications in the transplanted nomenclatures immediately became necessary, and were made as expediency dictated. There resulted a polyglot of diagnostic labels and systems, effectively blocking communication and the collection of medical statistics.