James Parkinson (11 April 175521 December 1824) was an English surgeon,
apothecary
''Apothecary'' () is a mostly archaic term for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses '' materia medica'' (medicine) to physicians, surgeons, and patients. The modern chemist (British English) or pharmacist (British and North Amer ...
, geologist,
palaeontologist
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
and political activist. He is best known for his 1817 work ''An Essay on the Shaking Palsy'',
in which he was the first to describe "paralysis agitans", a condition that would later be renamed
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...
by
Jean-Martin Charcot.
Early life
![James Parkinson, No](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/James_Parkinson%2C_No._1_Hoxton_Square_Wellcome_L0011427.jpg)
James Parkinson was born April 11, 1755 in
Shoreditch, London, England. He was the son of John Parkinson, an
apothecary
''Apothecary'' () is a mostly archaic term for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses '' materia medica'' (medicine) to physicians, surgeons, and patients. The modern chemist (British English) or pharmacist (British and North Amer ...
and surgeon practising in
Hoxton Square
Hoxton Square is a public garden square in the Hoxton area of Shoreditch in the London Borough of Hackney. Laid out in 1683, it is thought to be one of the oldest in London. Since the 1990s it has been at the heart of the Hoxton national (digit ...
in London,
and the oldest of five siblings, including his brother William and his sister Mary Sedgwick.
In 1784 Parkinson was approved by the
City of London Corporation
The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the municipal governing body of the City of London, the historic centre of London and the location of much of the United King ...
as a surgeon.
On 21 May 1783, he married Mary Dale, with whom he subsequently had eight children; two did not survive past childhood. Soon after he was married, Parkinson succeeded his father in his practice in 1 Hoxton Square.
Politics
In addition to his flourishing medical practice, Parkinson had an avid interest in
geology
Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...
and
palaeontology, as well as the politics of the day.
Parkinson was a strong advocate for the underprivileged, and an outspoken critic of the
Pitt government. His early career was marked by his being involved in a variety of social and revolutionary causes, and some historians think he most likely was a strong proponent for the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...
. He published nearly 20 political pamphlets in the post-French Revolution period, while Britain was in political chaos. Writing under his own name and his pseudonym "Old Hubert", he called for radical
social reforms and
universal suffrage
Universal suffrage (also called universal franchise, general suffrage, and common suffrage of the common man) gives the right to vote to all adult citizens, regardless of wealth, income, gender, social status, race, ethnicity, or political stan ...
.
Parkinson called for representation of the people in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
, the institution of annual parliaments. He was a member of several secret political societies, including the
London Corresponding Society
The London Corresponding Society (LCS) was a federation of local reading and debating clubs that in the decade following the French Revolution agitated for the democratic reform of the British Parliament. In contrast to other reform associati ...
and the
Society for Constitutional Information
The Society for Constitutional Information was a British activist group founded in 1780 by Major John Cartwright, to promote parliamentary reform.
It was an organisation of social reformers, many of whom were drawn from the rational dissenting c ...
.
In 1794, his membership in the organisation led to him being examined under oath before William Pitt and the
Privy Council to give evidence about a trumped-up plot to assassinate
King George III
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...
. He refused to testify regarding his part in the
Popgun Plot until he was certain he would not be forced to incriminate himself. The plan was to use a poisoned dart fired from a
pop-gun to bring the king's reign to a premature conclusion. No charges were ever brought against Parkinson, but several of his friends languished in prison for many months before being acquitted.
Medicine
![Parkinson, An Essay on the Shaking Palsy (first page)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Parkinson%2C_An_Essay_on_the_Shaking_Palsy_%28first_page%29.png)
Parkinson turned away from his tumultuous political career, and between 1799 and 1807 published several medical works, including a work on
gout
Gout ( ) is a form of inflammatory arthritis characterized by recurrent attacks of a red, tender, hot and swollen joint, caused by deposition of monosodium urate monohydrate crystals. Pain typically comes on rapidly, reaching maximal intens ...
in 1805.
He was also responsible for early writings on
ruptured appendix
Appendicitis is inflammation of the Appendix (anatomy), appendix. Symptoms commonly include right lower abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and anorexia (symptom), decreased appetite. However, approximately 40% of people do not have these typical ...
.
Parkinson was interested in improving the general health and well-being of the population. He wrote several medical doctrines that revealed a zeal for the health and welfare of the people similar to that expressed in his political
activism. He was a crusader for legal protection for the mentally ill, as well as their doctors and families.
In 1812, Parkinson assisted his son with the first described case of
appendicitis
Appendicitis is inflammation of the appendix. Symptoms commonly include right lower abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and decreased appetite. However, approximately 40% of people do not have these typical symptoms. Severe complications of a ru ...
in English, and the first instance in which perforation was shown to be the cause of death.
He believed that any worthwhile surgeon should know
shorthand
Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek ''st ...
, at which he was adept.
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson was the first person to systematically describe six individuals with symptoms of the disease that bears his name. In ''An Essay on the Shaking Palsy''
(1817), he reported on three of his own patients and three persons whom he saw in the street. He referred to the disease that would later bear his name as paralysis agitans, or shaking palsy.
He distinguished between resting tremors and the tremors with motion.
Jean-Martin Charcot coined the term "
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...
" some 60 years later.
Parkinson erroneously suggested that the tremors in these patients were due to lesions in the cervical spinal cord.
Science
![Puppigerus parkinsonii](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/Puppigerus_parkinsonii.jpg)
Parkinson's interest gradually turned from medicine to nature, specifically the relatively new fields of geology and palaeontology. He began collecting specimens and drawings of
fossils in the latter part of the 18th century. He took his children and friends on excursions to collect and observe fossil plants and animals. His attempts to learn more about fossil identification and interpretation were frustrated by a lack of available literature in English, so he took the decision to improve matters by writing his own introduction to the study of fossils.
In 1804, the first volume of his ''Organic Remains of a Former World'' was published.
Gideon Mantell
Gideon Algernon Mantell MRCS FRS (3 February 1790 – 10 November 1852) was a British obstetrician, geologist and palaeontologist. His attempts to reconstruct the structure and life of ''Iguanodon'' began the scientific study of dinosaurs: in ...
praised it as "the first attempt to give a familiar and scientific account of fossils". A second volume was published in 1808, and a third in 1811. Parkinson illustrated each volume and his daughter Emma coloured some of the plates. The plates were later reused by
Gideon Mantell
Gideon Algernon Mantell MRCS FRS (3 February 1790 – 10 November 1852) was a British obstetrician, geologist and palaeontologist. His attempts to reconstruct the structure and life of ''Iguanodon'' began the scientific study of dinosaurs: in ...
. In 1822, Parkinson published the shorter "Outlines of Oryctology: an Introduction to the Study of Fossil Organic Remains, especially of those found in British Strata".
Parkinson also contributed several papers to
William Nicholson's "A Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry and the Arts", and in the first, second, and fifth volumes of the "Geological Society's Transactions". He wrote a single volume ''Outlines of Oryctology'' in 1822, a more popular work. On 13 November 1807, Parkinson and other distinguished gentlemen met at the
Freemasons' Tavern in London. The gathering included such great names as Sir
Humphry Davy
Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet, (17 December 177829 May 1829) was a British chemist and inventor who invented the Davy lamp and a very early form of arc lamp. He is also remembered for isolating, by using electricity, several elements for t ...
,
Arthur Aikin
Arthur Aikin (19 May 177315 April 1854) was an English chemist, mineralogy, mineralogist and scientific writer, and was a founding member of the Chemical Society (now the Royal Society of Chemistry). He first became its treasurer in 1841, and la ...
, and
George Bellas Greenough. This was to be the first meeting of the
Geological Society of London
The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with more than 12,000 Fellows.
Fe ...
.
Parkinson belonged to a school of thought,
catastrophism, that concerned itself with the belief that the
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
's geology and biosphere were shaped by recent large-scale cataclysms. He cited the
Noachian deluge
The Noachian is a system (stratigraphy), geologic system and early geologic timescale, time period on the planet Mars characterized by high rates of meteorite and asteroid Impact event, impacts and the possible presence of abundant surface water. ...
of
Genesis
Genesis may refer to:
Bible
* Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind
* Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...
as an example, and he firmly believed that creation and extinction were processes guided by the hand of God. His view on
Creation
Creation may refer to:
Religion
*''Creatio ex nihilo'', the concept that matter was created by God out of nothing
* Creation myth, a religious story of the origin of the world and how people first came to inhabit it
* Creationism, the belief tha ...
was that each "day" was actually a much longer period, that lasted perhaps tens of thousands of years.
Death and memorials
Parkinson died on 21 December 1824, after a stroke that interfered with his speech. He bequeathed his houses in Langthorne to his sons and wife, and his apothecary's shop to his son John. His collection of organic remains was given to his wife, and much of it was sold in 1827; a catalogue of the sale has never been found. He was buried at St. Leonard's Church, Shoreditch.
Parkinson's life is commemorated with a stone tablet inside the church of
St Leonard's, Shoreditch, where he was a member of the congregation; the exact site of his grave is not known and his body may lie in the crypt or in the churchyard. A
blue plaque at 1 Hoxton Square marks the site of his home. Several fossils were named after him. No portrait of him is known. A photograph sometimes identified as an image of him is of a dentist of the same name; he died before the invention of photography.
World Parkinson's Day is held each year on his birthday, 11 April.
In addition to the eponymous disease, Parkinson is commemorated in the names of several fossil organisms, including the ammonite ''
Parkinsonia parkinsoni'', the
crinoid
Crinoids are marine animals that make up the class Crinoidea. Crinoids that are attached to the sea bottom by a stalk in their adult form are commonly called sea lilies, while the unstalked forms are called feather stars or comatulids, which are ...
''Apiocrinus parkinsoni'', the snail ''Rostellaria parkinsoni'', and the tree ''Nipa parkinsoni''.
Works
*
An Address, to the Hon. Edmund Burke from the Swinish Multitude London, 1793.
*''Medical admonitions addressed to families, respecting the practice of domestic medicine, and the preservation of health'' London, 1799
Fifth Edition, 1812*
''The Town and Country Friend and Physician'' Philadelphia, 1803.
* The first volume containing the vegetable kingdom, 1804
Second Edition 1833The second volume containing the fossil zoophytes, 1808.Second Edition 1833.The third volume containing the fossil starfish, echini, shells, insects, amphibia, mammals &c. 1811
*
*
*
Second Edition, 1830
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
*
Information sheet about James Parkinsonpublished by
Parkinson's UK
Parkinson's UK is a Parkinson's research and support charity in the United Kingdom. In April 2010, the Parkinson's Disease Society changed its name to become Parkinson's UK. Its aims are to improve the quality of life for people affected by Park ...
.
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parkinson, James
1755 births
1824 deaths
18th-century English medical doctors
Alumni of the London Hospital Medical College
British neurologists
Catastrophism
English activists
18th-century British geologists
19th-century English medical doctors
English palaeontologists
Parkinson's disease researchers
People from Shoreditch
Place of death missing
19th-century British geologists