Numbers can get bad reputations. A couple Hispanic students took umbrage when a lecturer said that in South America, the number 606 on a sign outside a shop meant that it was a pharmacy. That was the number that Paul Ehrlich gave to salvarsan, the first really effective cure for syphilis.
There is an interesting story that goes with that. A woman who had been secretary to Paul Ehrlich wrote a book, in which she said Paul Ehrlich had thought 606 was worthless. But against his will, he had been obliged to give laboratory space to a Japanese graduate student who had managed to infect rabbits with syphilis. Paul Ehrlich, just to make busy work for the Japanese student, set him to testing all the compounds that had been found useless. When the Japanese student found 606 would cure syphilis in rabbits, Paul Erhlich shouted "I knew it all the time!" And made sure the Japanes student got no credit at all.