George Huntington (April 9, 1850 – March 3, 1916) was an American physician who contributed a classic clinical description of the disease that bears his name—Huntington's disease.
Huntington described this condition in the first of only two scientific papers he ever wrote. He wrote this paper when he was 22, a year after receiving his medical degree from Columbia University in New York. He first read the paper before the Meigs and Mason Academy of Medicine in Middleport, Ohio on February 15, 1872, and then published it in the Medical and Surgical Reporter of Philadelphia on April 13, 1872. Huntington's father and grandfather, George Lee Huntington (1811–1881) and Abel Huntington (1778–1858), were also physicians in the same family practice. Their longitudinal observations combined with his own were invaluable in precisely describing this hereditary disease in multiple generations of a family in East Hampton on Long Island. In a 1908 review, the eminent physician William Osler said of this paper: "In the history of medicine, there are few instances in which a disease has been more accurately, more graphically or more briefly described." In 1874 George Huntington returned to Dutchess County, New York, to practice medicine. He joined a number of medical associations and started working for the Matteawan General Hospital. In 1908 the scientific journal Neurograph dedicated him a special edition. George Huntington should not be confused with George Sumner Huntington (1861–1927), the anatomist (both men attended the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University).
Biography Huntington's father and grandfather, George Lee Huntington (1811–1881) and Abel Huntington (1777–1858), were also physicians. The Huntington family, originally from Connecticut, had lived on Long Island since 1797. That same year his grandfather, Dr. Abel Huntington (1777-1858), opened his general practice in East Hampton, on the Atlantic coast. He married Frances Lee in the same year he opened his practice. His son, George Lee Huntington, who was born there in 1811, studied medicine at New York University and spent the rest of his life working at his father's practice. He married Mary Hogland. His son, George, who would become the family's third medical descendant, was born on April 9, 1850, in East Hampton, a fact that was decisive for his enduring fame in medical history. At an early age George familiarized himself with his father's practice, following him in his rounds and visits to patients as a child. In 1871, George Huntington got his medical license from Columbia University in New York at the age of 21. His thesis at the College of Physicians and Surgeons was titled Opium. After graduating, he returned to Long Island from Dutchess County, where he worked for some time with his father. During this period, he was able to better observe the cases of hereditary chorea, which he had seen for the first time with his grandfather and father.
In a lecture he gave to the Neurological Society of New York in 1909, Huntington said:"Over fifty years ago in riding with my father on his professional rounds, I saw my first cases of 'the disorder,' which was the way in which the natives always referred to the dreaded disease. I recall it as vividly as though it had occurred yesterday. It made a most enduring impression upon my boyish mind, an impression every detail of which I recall today, an impression which was the very first impulse to my choosing chorea as my virgin contribution to medical lore. Driving with my father through a wooded road leading from Easthampton to Amagansett, we suddenly came upon two women, mother and daughter, both bowing, twisting, grimacing. I stared in wonderment, almost in fear. What could it mean? My father paused to speak with them, and we passed on. Then my Gamaliel-like instruction began; my medical instruction had its inception. From this point, my interest in the disease has never wholly ceased."He took advantage of his father’s and grandfather's notes on the disease that had caught his attention since childhood, and diagnosed many cases. The manuscript of his article about hyperkinesia, in which he described the disease bearing his name, was probably worked on during this time. In an original manuscript preserved by his father, he had made suggestions for reforms and additions. It is likely that Huntington had his unpublished manuscript with him when he left East Hampton. On February 15, 1872, George Huntington gave his classic presentation on chorea to the Meigs and Mason Academy of Medicine in Middleport, Ohio at only 22 years old. His lecture was met with applause, so he sent the manuscript to the Medical and Surgical Reporter of Philadelphia, where it was published on April 13, 1872. In that lecture he described the disease to the medical community, highlighting three characteristics:
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