We recently came across an article by Prof. M. Pandolfi in the European Journal of Internal Medicine.1 This contribution reads like a letter to the editor but appears as a ‘special article’, a type of article not included in the journal’s editorial submission checklist. It is not a scientific paper, since it does not report methods or any results. It would have been more honest to publish it as an editorial.Some years ago we chanced upon Titus Lucretius Caro’s De Rerum Natura.2 Lucretius (98–55 BC.) was a Roman philosopher known for his naturalistic view. We tend to agree with Pandolfi when he (wrongly) quotes Lucretius as saying ex nihilo fit nihil, this quotation (correctly ex nihilo nihil fit) should have been attributed to René Descartes in his Principia Philosophiae. Lucretius’s concept of nothingness was not an ‘empty’ non-being. He said “nil igitur fieri de nilo posse fatendumst, semine quando opus est rebus quo quaeque creatae aeris in teneras possint proferrier aurasâ€? (One must admit that nothing can rise from nothingness, as things need a seed, from which each thing, once generated, can spread out in the light breath of air…)2, further on, he wondered about the order of cosmos (neque forte deum nobis immense potestas sit, vario motu quae candida sidera versit) (and, by chance, isn’t that a great divine power turning shining stars in their movings shows himself to all of us?)2 T.C. Lucretius, De rerum natura. In: G.B. Conte, Editor, RCS Publisher, Milan, Italy (1990) L. Canali trad..2.