George Huntington: the man behind the eponym.

Abstract

George Huntington first encountered patients with the disease subsequently given his name at the age of 8 while accompanying his father and grandfather on their medical rounds. In 1872, in his twenty-first year, he described this disease so accurately and succinctly that the disease was later named after him. We have explored, through contact with previously unpublished family records and documents, the personal factors which helped George Huntington to make this observation and also investigated why this remains his sole contribution to medical research. We show by documenting his precise examinations of nature that he had profound powers of observation. Furthermore his decision not to pursue medical research was based on a commitment to patient care and a belief that he could make a greater contribution through the practice of primary care medicine rather than the pursuit of research.

“On Chorea”: 150 Years of the Beginning of Hope

“…The clinical entity was disseminated by the great physician Sir William Osler, mainly after the publication of the book entitled “On Chorea and Choreiform Affections (1894),” 9 and the name “Huntington's chorea” quickly gained acceptance among the scientific community as the designation of the disorder. Sir Osler, one of the greatest exponents of neurology, once declared: “In the history of medicine there are few instances in which a disease has been more accurately, more graphically or more briefly described” 10,11 …”

“…Sir Osler, one of the greatest exponents of neurology, once declared: "In the history of medicine there are few instances in which a disease has been more accurately, more graphically or more briefly described". 10,11 In this brief, but clear description, George captured the association of chorea and dementia, the inexorable progression of disability, change in behavior, tendency to suicide, hereditary nature, onset in adult life, and early death. Interestingly, this was one of only three papers he published throughout his career.…”

Huntington???s Disease: What We Learned From the Original Essay

“…No details were given; the original cases were not even described, but to Huntington's account of the symptomentology no essential fact has been added (4)." Katherine, Huntington's daughter, gives us insight into the kind of physician and person he was remarking that her father, "trained us to go through life with our eyes open (2). "…”

Genetic landmarks through philately: Woodrow Wilson ‘Woody’ Guthrie and Huntington disease

“…George Huntington first described the disease that would subsequently bear his name in 1872 when he was only 21 years old and one year removed from medical school (2, 3). In his paper entitled ‘On Chorea’, which he delivered to the Meigs and Mason Academy of Medicine at Middleport, Ohio, he commented on the presentation of a previously undescribed condition which he had first encountered at 8 years of age while on rounds with his physician father.…”