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George Huntington

Translated from: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Huntington

George Huntington (April 9th, 1850- March 3rd, 1916) was an American physician who worked in the clinic that played a central role in the original description of the illness that bears his name, Huntington's disease.

Huntington described this condition in the first of only two scientific works that he wrote. He wrote this article when he was 22 years old, one year after receiving his medical degree from Columbia University in New York. The article was first published in Philadelphia's Medical and Surgical Reporter on April 13th, 1872.1 George Huntington should not be confused with George Sumner Huntington (1861-1927), who was an anatomist that also attended Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.2

Biography

His father, George Lee Huntington (1811-1881), and his grandfather, Abel Huntington (1778-1858), were also physicians. The family had lived in Long Island since 1797, when his grandfather, Dr. Abel Huntington, opened his family practice in East Hampton, which is located right near the Atlantic coast. This same year, Dr. Abel Huntington married Frances Lee. Their son, George Lee Huntington, was born in 1811. He studied medicine at New York University, and he spent the rest of his life practicing medicine at the clinic that his father established. During the time of his career, he got married to Mary Hogland. Their son George, who was the third of three successive generations of physicians in his family, was born on April 9th, 1850. He was born in East Hampton, which was a decisive fact for his lasting fame in medical history. At an early age, George was familiarized with his father's practice, and he followed his father during his rounds and visits with patients.

In 1871, 21-year-old George Huntington received his medical degree from Columbia University in New York. The thesis he wrote at the College of Physicians and Surgeons is titled "Opium."

After graduating, he returned to his family in East Hampton, where he worked for a while with his father. During this time, he was able to further observe hereditary chorea, which he had first seen with his father and grandfather.

During a lecture that he gave to the New York Neurological Society in 1909, Huntington said,

"Over 50 years ago, riding with my father on his professional rounds, I saw my first case of “that disorder,” which was the way in which the natives always referred to the dreaded diseases. 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. We suddenly came upon two women, mother and daughter, both tall, thin, almost cadaverous, 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 institution had its inception. From this point on my interest in the disease has never wholly ceased."3

He took advantage of his father's and grandfather's notes on chorea that had attracted his attention even during his childhood, and he diagnosed various cases. The manuscript of his article that surveyed choreic hyperactivity (and in which he describes the sickness that bears his name) was probably worked on during this time. In the original manuscript that he kept, his father had made suggestions for changes and additions. It is likely that Huntington had this unpublished manuscript with him when he left East Hampton.

On February 15th, 1872, George Huntington gave his classic presentation about chorea at the Meigs and Mason Academy of Medicine in Middleport, Ohio4. He was only 22 at the time. His lecture was received with applause, so he sent the manuscript to Philadelphia's Medical and Surgical Reporter, where it appeared on April 13th, 18725. At that conference, he presented the description of the disease, and he emphasized three of its characteristics to the medical community:


 * It is a hereditary illness. In other words, the genes that put someone at risk for developing Huntington's disease can be passed from parent to offspring.6
 * Those who suffer from this illness present suicidal and demented tendencies. The mind and the body gradually become weaker and weaker until death arrives, finally freeing them from suffering.
 * The illness usually appears in adults and this condition worsens with age. Movements stiffen gradually until the muscles, which at the beginning were not observed to be affected, no longer even participate in spasmodic movements.

In 1872, a summary of this presentation was written by Adolf Kussmaul and Carl Wilhelm to be published in German literature. Afterwards, the eponym was used more and more by European authors. Huntington recognizes the hereditary character of the illness, clarifying in his original document that when one or both progenitors have demonstrated the manifestations of the illness, one or more of the children will always suffer from the condition. It never jumps from one generation to another without manifesting itself. Once the disease has made its mark, the family never recovers.

In a review article published in 1908 in the journal Neurograph, Sir William Osler wrote: "In the history of medicine, there are few instances in which a disease has been more accurately, more graphically or more briefly described."7 Currently, there is a tendency to call the illness Huntington's instead of Huntington's chorea, but this original name is still very well-known, accepted, and understood.

Jelliffe and Tilney took on the task of tracking the ancestry of the affected families, a study completed years later by Vessie (1932), who found that the illness originally came from two brothers and their families that had left from Bures (in Essex) of Suffolk, England and later navigated towards the Boston Harbor in 1630. During the course of these three centuries, about 1000 descendants of the original settlers found out that they had the illness as well. Quite a few of these wretches were tried for witchcraft in the colonial courts, and alternatively, they were persecuted because their involuntary movements were interpreted as a joking pantomime of the suffering of Christ during his crucifixion.

This progressive and hereditary chorea had been described before 1872, and a very complete clinical description, even including the component of dementia, had been published in Norway as early as 1859 by the physician of the Setesdal district, Johan Christian Lund. This report did not receive international attention and it was certainly unknown to Huntington. It was not translated to English until 1959, a century after its original publication.

In 1874, Huntington moved to New York, and apart from two years in North Carolina, he spent the rest of his life practicing medicine in Dutchess County. He retired in 1915.

On October 6th, 1874, Huntington married Mary Elizabeth. He was a humble and humorous man that enjoyed hunting, fishing, drawing wildlife, and playing the flute. He was kind and conscious in his medical practice, and he was very well-liked by his patients. He had a happy family life with five children, and he had a great passion for music, often playing the flute with accompaniment from his wife. Additionally, he was an ardent scholar of nature and guns. Drawing was one of his life interests and he often made drawings of the birds he hunted during his trips through the forest. Here, then, was a man that enjoyed life to the fullest, and that, because of his intuition and imagination, earned himself a place in medical history. He was a practicing physician until he was 64-years-old. He had various periods in which he suffered asthma attacks. Huntington died of pneumonia on March 3rd, 1916 at the age of 65 years old. He spent these last moments in his son's house in Cairo, New York. This son, carrying on the family tradition, was also a physician.

References


 * 1) https://hdsa.org/what-is-hd/history-and-genetics-of-huntingtons-disease/history-of-huntingtons-disease/
 * 2) https://www.library-archives.cumc.columbia.edu/obit/george-sumner-huntington
 * 3) http://www.kumc.edu/Documents/neurology/04.28.2017_George%20Huntington.ppt
 * 4) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4782548/
 * 5) https://dx.doi.org/10.1076%2F0964-704X%28200004%299%3A1%3B1-2%3BFT076
 * 6) https://www.healthywa.wa.gov.au/Articles/F_I/Genetic-conditions
 * 7) https://web.archive.org/web/20060718132140/http://www.lkwdpl.org/hdsa/conomy.htm