—A very early account of possible ‘neuroencephalitis optica’ is to be found in the in the second, enlarged edition (1829) of John Abercrombie’s (1780–1844) Pathological and Practical Researches on Diseases of the Brain and Spinal Cord, a case of intractable vomiting, relapsing visual loss, and spinal pain [10,11]; intractable vomiting and hiccups are typical manifestations of medulla oblongata involvement in aquaporin-4 antibody-positive NMO and often herald the onset of myelitis [12,13]). The gene discussed is AQP4; the disease is neuromyelitis optica.