Hi, Wasn't this group talking recently about the importance of genealogy in medicine? I just read an interesting article in the Vanderbilt Magazine regarding a new theory about the Hatfield-McCoy feud. Apparently yet another McCoy descendent showed up at the Vanderbilt Hospital recently to have her adrenal gland removed. It turns out that this family suffers from Hippel-Lindau disease, a genetic disorder that results in tumors that can occur in many body organs, frequently in the adrenal gland. These tumors are responsible for spewing out large quantities of adrenalin-like compounds into the blood stream that result in hyperactivity, etc. This, theoretically, can make a person suffering from this disorder very angry and upset for no good reason. While this would not explain the entire feud, it could explain why it got so out of hand and bizarre!