On the wall of Victor A. McKusick's office in Baltimore hangs a portrait of a sad-faced woman holding a six-fingered infant. The photograph, which he calls the Amish Madonna, was taken during McKusick's pioneering studies of the Old Order Amish of Pennsylvania 40 years ago. McKusick described genetic diseases in these and other patients long before there were tools to pinpoint the mistakes in their DNA.
McKusick is a white-haired, dark-suited figure, still vigorous and straight but, at 80 years old, slightly tremulous. Near the Amish Madonna portrait, he keeps a row of books holding the fruits of his patient and relentless efforts to place genetics in the mainstream of clinical medicine. First published in 1966 and now in its 12th edition, Mendelian Inheritance in Man is an ever-expanding catalog of human genes and the medical disorders associated with them. McKusick still oversees the compilation of the catalog that has ...
