Monday, April 16, 2012

About Parkisons

The conversation about PD is at the mid-point...actually mid-month.  It might be a good time to answer a question I was asked recently.  Was there a person responsible for naming the disease?  The answer is yes.  However, at the time I didn't know anything about him.

Dr. James Parkinson (1755 to 1824), was an English physician, geologist, paleontologist, and political activist.  His most noted work was an Essay on the Shaking Palsy, a description of the disease which later became known as Parkinson's Disease.

An advocate for the under-priviledged, Dr. Parkinson went on to publish almost a dozen political pamphlets in the post-French Revolution period.  In 1805 he published a work on gout.  In 1812 he assisted his son with the first described case of appendicitis in English.

Eventually, his interest turned from medicine to nature.  He published additional works on geology and paleontology, and began collecting specimens and drawings of fossils.  In 1822, he published a number of papers on fossils.

 

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