James Parkinson was the first to acknowledge the characteristic symptoms of Parkinsons Disease as a seperate disorder from similiar conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis, and he coined the term "Shaking Palsy," to describe the condition, after the tremors that are associated with the disease. In 1817 Dr. Parkinson published an Essay on the Shaking Palsy describing the disease for the first time. Parkinson was the first to see the symptoms of the illness as a whole and part of one condition.
James Parkinson was born in Hoxton, England in 1755 and was the son of a family doctor, John Parkinson. He was an apprenticed surgeon to his father and was one of the first students to attend London Hospital Medical College. In 1777, James received the Honorary Silver Medal of the Royal Humane Society for the treatment of a hanged man. He married Mary Dale in 1781 and had 6 children, 2 of whom died early in childhood. Parkinson became a prominent London physician and was a regular medical attendant at Holly House, a private madhouse in Hoxton.
By the time Parkinson had written An Essay on the Shaking Palsy, he was 62 years of age. He had considered Parkinson's Disease as a "tedious and most distracting malady." In his work he described 6 cases of the disorder, all of which consisted of involuntary tremors of the limbs. In 5 of them there was also a "tendency to bend forward" and "to pass from a walking to a running pace." In 1824 James Parkinson died of a "severe paralytic affection" at 69 years of age. |
