George Huntington

author

George Huntington

1835–1916

Best known for the clear early description of the illness later named Huntington’s disease, this American physician made his mark on medicine while still in his early twenties. His brief but influential 1872 paper remained a landmark in neurology for generations.

1 Audiobook

Robber and hero: the story of the raid on the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota, by the James-Younger band of robbers, in 1876.

Robber and hero: the story of the raid on the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota, by the James-Younger band of robbers, in 1876.

by George Huntington

About the author

Born on April 9, 1850, in East Hampton, New York, George Huntington came from a family of physicians and followed them into medicine. He studied at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University and earned his medical degree in 1871.

In 1872, soon after beginning practice, he delivered a paper titled On Chorea to the Meigs and Mason Academy of Medicine in Ohio. In it, he gave a remarkably clear account of the hereditary disorder that later became known as Huntington’s disease, and that description brought him lasting recognition.

Huntington later practiced medicine in New York and lived until March 3, 1916. Although he wrote relatively little, his name endures because of one concise, memorable clinical description that changed how physicians understood an inherited neurological disease.