James Parkinson

Author Code: EJPK

Parkinson learned much of his medical skills from his father, John Parkinson, who was an apothecary and surgeon in London. After some formal training, he was approved as a surgeon by the Corporation of London in 1784. Parkinson developed strong interests in other scientific endeavors including geology and palaeontology, but for much of the remainder of the 18th century he involved himself heavily in politics. He published a large number of pamphlets calling for social reforms and was a proponent of the French Revolution. By 1799, he tired of his political career and returned to medicine. In 1804, he published Organic Remains of a Former World and followed with two more volumes in the series in 1808 and 1811. The work drew high praise from palaeontologists. In 1797, he helped to found the Geological Society of London. In 1817, he published An Essay on the Shaking Palsy and it is this paper for which he best remembered today, primarily due to Freud's mentor Charcot naming the disorder Parkinson's Disease in his honor some forty years later. Parkinson's other works include Observations on Dr. Smith's Philosophy of Physic (1780), The Villager's Friend and Physician (1800), The Way to Health (1802), Observations on the Nature and Cure of Gout (1805), Observations on the Excessive Indulgence of Children (1807) and Observations on the Necessity for Parochial Fever Wards (1818).