HUNTINGTON'S CHOREA: A PARTIAL MODEL OF THE AGEING PROCESS

Abstract

Data obtained from a virtually complete ascer‐tainment of cases of Huntington's chorea in Queens‐land have confirmed that choreics have significantly more offspring than their normal siblings. This is taken as a demonstration of the action of the type of mutation postulated by Medawar (1957) as the explanation of the ageing process; Huntington's chorea thus presents a simplified model which, multiplied and extended, could explain the underlying nature of old age.