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Mal de Judas

In medieval presentations of Judas (on stage in mystery plays and in popular illustrations), his skin was often shown as pitted with bright red spots, as evidence of his general depravity and untrustworthiness. So when individuals developed the symptoms of what we would now diagnose as measles – including bright red spots – the disease was referred to in France as Mal de Judas.

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Needle

Two British anaesthetists coined the term ‘Judas Needle’, in a June 2013 article, to highlight a malfunction in an air inlet needle. Instead of piercing the air seal on bottles of medicine, it had a tendency to backfire and lodge itself in the anaesthetist’s hand. They likened it to the legendary ‘Judas Pistol’, a treacherous gun used to cheat the odds in a duel that, instead of firing a bullet forwards, had been tampered with and so backfired, killing its user.¹