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 East Hampton, 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 It is likely that Huntington had his unpublished manuscript with him when he left East Hampton.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: It was a hereditary disease: “when either or both of the parents have shown