& symbol in PL/SQL

I don't write much PL/SQL as so it took many years before I ran into 
this one.  Pardon me is this is well known.  Tested in 7.3.4 \& 9iR2

SQL> show define
define "&" (hex 26)

SQL> -- Comment line with & symbol in it

SQL> declare
  2  c varchar2(1);
  3  begin
  4  select 'R' into c from dual;
  5  -- comment line with a & symbol in it
  6  -- comment line with a \& symbol escaped
  7  dbms_output.put_line(c);
  8  end;
  9  /
Enter value for symbol: e
old   5: -- comment line with a & symbol in it
new   5: -- comment line with a e in it
R

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Why does the PL/SQL parser interpret the define symbol before comment 
delimeters?  So one can't comment out a line of PL/SQL code containing 
a & without also using the escape?  And worst of all, I can't use the 
& as shorthand for AND in my embedded comments.  Open a TAR.  Call out
the National Guard.

Mike Hand
Polaroid Corp.

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