The Woman Who Walked into the Sea: Huntington's and the Making of a Genetic Disease

A groundbreaking medical and social history of a devastating hereditary neurological disorder once demonized as “the witchcraft disease”

When Phebe Hedges, a woman in East Hampton, New York, walked into the sea in 1806, she made visible the historical experience of a family affected by the dreaded disorder of movement, mind, and mood her neighbors called St.Vitus's dance. Doctors later spoke of Huntington’s chorea, and today it is known as Huntington's disease. This book is the first histor...