George Huntington

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George Huntington

George Huntington (born April 9, 1850 in East Hampton , New York , † March 3, 1916 in New York City , New York) was an American doctor. He was best known for his scientific description of Huntington's disease, which was later named after him .

Life

Huntington came from a medical family: both his father George Lee Huntington (1811-1881) and his grandfather Abel Huntington (1777-1858) were doctors in the same practice in East Hampton on Long Island . He studied medicine in New York at Columbia University . Even as a child, when he accompanied his father, he had observed families with several noticeably ill people. He later combined his observations with the records of his father and grandfather and was able to precisely record the inheritance and phenotype of the disease that was later named after him.

He originally gave a lecture on February 15, 1872 at the Meigs and Mason Academy of Medicine in Middleport, Ohio, about his observations of patients suffering from Vitus' dance. This article was later published on April 13, 1872, in the US magazine "Medical and Surgical Reporter". He described the disease, which was later named after him, with a clinical triad:

  • Heredity (the disease is autosomal dominant)
  • Tendency to psychiatric abnormalities ("insanity") and to suicide
  • severe symptoms only occur in adulthood (Huntington's was wrong here - he was not yet familiar with the juvenile form).

In 1908, William Osler wrote in a review of Huntington's paper: " In the history of medicine, there are few instances in which a disease has been more accurately, more graphically or more briefly described ." George Huntington was 22 years old when his observations were published. After that he only wrote one scientific contribution. In 1874 he returned to Dutchess County , New York, to open a practice there.

George Huntington should not be confused with the American anatomist George Sumner Huntington (1861–1927). Both studied at Columbia University in New York.

Individual evidence

George Huntington's article
  1. ↑ G. Huntington: On Chorea . In: Medical and Surgical Reporter of Philadelphia . 26, No. 15, 1872, pp. 317-321.
  2. ↑ Lanska DJ: "George Huntington (1850-1916) and hereditary chorea". J Hist Neurosci 2000: 9 (1): 76-89.
  3. ↑ Dr. George Huntington and the Disease Bearing His Name ( Memento of the original from July 18, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at www.lkwdpl.org  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lkwdpl.org
  4. ^ Van der Weiden RM: George Huntington and George Sumner Huntington. A tale of two doctors . In: Hist Philos Life Sci . 11, No. 2, 1989, pp. 297-304. PMID 2534642 .
personal data
SURNAME Huntington, George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Huntington, George Sumner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American doctor
DATE OF BIRTH April 9, 1850
PLACE OF BIRTH East Hampton (New York)
DATE OF DEATH March 3, 1916
Place of death New York City