In the process of investigating the family history of one of several patients admitted to this hospital for Huntington's chorea, we discovered that the widely quoted paper of Dr. P. R. Vessie contained several inaccuracies. These were of such a nature to render unproven his thesis that Huntington's chorea was originally introduced to this country by three individuals who came to this country in Colonial times. We tried to use Vessie's sources, although references to them were vague. In addition, we discovered extensive genealogical information about the involved families in the Local History and Genealogy Section of the New York State Library.
Vessie's frustrating fancy to hide but hint at the identities of the settlers as “Nichols,” “Wilkie” and “Jeffers” complicates investigation, already rendered difficult enough by various speculations on the actual relationship between them, e.g., whether their common dame was Critchley's “gay lady of Bures.”
Our belief is that Huntington's chorea has been propagated largely, but not exclusively, through the descendants of several Colonial families. It appears at this time that, owing to the frequency of intermarriage between families, and to the highly speculative nature of the earliest cases, it is impossible to narrow the field of transmission to Vessie's three shipmates.
© Williams & Wilkins 1969. All Rights Reserved.
