James Parkinson

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James Parkinson (born April 11, 1755 in Hoxton ( London ), † December 21, 1824 in London) was a British doctor , surgeon and paleontologist . According to him, which was Parkinson's disease named.

Life

Born as the eldest of three children of pharmacist and surgeon John Parkinson and his wife Mary Parkinson (née Dale), he studied medicine at the London Hospital from 1776 to 1784, with Parkinson already working in his father's practice during his studies. After the exams passed in Edinburgh and the death of his father in 1784, he took over his florid practice in Hoxton Square , but continued to attend lectures, including in 1785 with John Hunter (1728-1793), one of the most famous surgeons of his time, who was also active politically committed to freedom and justice. In 1787 James Parkinson became a member of the Medical Society in London.

Under the pseudonym "Old Hubert" Parkinson published anti-royalist pamphlets around the time of the French Revolution and became a member of the "Society for Constitutional Information" and the "London Corresponding Society United for the Reform of Parliamentary Representation" - both political associations that, among other things, for fundamental tax and prison reform occurred. Parkinson also became an employee of a private insane asylum.

In 1799 and 1800 Parkinson published five more or less extensive medical works. In 1799, under the title Medical Admonitions, an approximately 500-page “house book” was published, which was aimed at a medical lay public with health advice. Also in 1799 under the title Chemical Pocket Book a compendium of the prevailing doctrines in the field of chemistry. In 1800 a more easily understandable version of the Medical Admonitions was published under the title The Villager's Friend and Physician , which was shortened by 400 pages . In the same year, the books Dangerous Sports , a children's book that warns of the risk of accidents, and The Hospital Pupil , a critical examination of the training practice of doctors at the time, were published. Parkinson also reported on child abuse and dealt with mental illness and referral practice for affected patients.

James Parkinson and his son John published the first English report on appendicitis (inflammation of the appendix on the appendix) as the cause of death in 1812 .

Shaking-palsy-essay.gif

His best-known medical publication, however, is the work An Essay on the Shaking Palsy (A Treatise on Shaking Palsy) from 1817, in which Parkinson's first describes the symptoms of the neurological disease later named after him. Parkinson herself referred to her as "paralysis" ( paralysis agitans ) because of the rest tremor that is noticeable in many patients . The expression " Parkinson's disease " (also "Parkinson's syndrome", "Parkinson's disease" or "Parkinsonism") was proposed for the first time in 1865 by William Sanders and in 1884 at the latest by the French psychiatrist Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893) publicly established.

In addition to his medical work, Parkinson was also active as a geologist and paleontologist. He built up an extensive mineral and fossil collection that became famous beyond the borders of England and published a three-volume work entitled Organic Remains of a Former World between 1804 and 1811 and a palaeontological textbook entitled Outlines of Oryctology in 1822 . With the chemist Humphry Davy and others, he founded the Geological Society of London in 1807 .

Parkinson was buried on December 29, 1824 in the cemetery of St. Leonard's Church in Shoreditch , London , where a memorial stone still commemorates him.

Works

  • Medical admonitions addressed to families respecting the practice of domestic medicine and the preservation of healt. London 1799.
  • Medical Admonitions, with observations on the excessive indulgence of children. 2nd Edition. 2 volumes. London 1799.
  • The Chemical Pocket-Book, or Memoranda Chemica. London 1799.
  • The Hospital Pupil, or An essay intended to facilitate the Study of Medicine and Surgerey. In four letters. London 1800.
  • Dangerous Sports. London 1800.
  • Hints for the Improvement of Trusses. London 1802.
  • Organic Remains of a Former World. 3 volumes. London 1804-1811.
  • Observations on the Nature and Cure of Gout. London 1805.
  • Mad Houses. Observations on the Act for Regulating Mad-houses and a correction of the statements of the case of Benjamin Elliott, convicted of illegally confining Mary Daintree: with remarks addressed to the friends of insane persons. London 1811.
  • A treatise on paralysis. (bilingual edition, German / English, Norderstedt 2009, ISBN 978-3-8370-2207-0 )
  • An Essay on the Shaking Palsy. London 1817. (Reprint in: M. Critchley: James Parkinson (1755–1824). 1955, pp. 145–218; German translation A treatise on shaking paralysis. By Ute Schlie, as an appendix to NJ Pies: James Parkinson (1755– 1824). 1988)
  • Outlines of Oryctology. London 1822.

literature

  • M. Critchley: James Parkinson (1755-1824). A bicentenary volume of papers dealing with Parkinson's Disease, incorporating the original 'Essay on the Shaking Palsy'. London 1955.
  • Patsy A. Gerstner: Parkinson, James . In: Charles Coulston Gillispie (Ed.): Dictionary of Scientific Biography . tape 10 : SG Navashin - W. Piso . Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 1974, p. 321-322 .
  • AD Morris: James Parkinson. His life and times. Birkhäuser, Boston et al. 1989, ISBN 3-7643-3401-0 .
  • Norbert J. Pies: James Parkinson (1755-1824): doctor - pharmacist - paleontologist - social reformer. Merz, Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-927187-01-1 .
  • Oliver Sacks: Parkinson's Disease and Parkinsonism. In: Ders .: Awakenings - time of awakening. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1991, ISBN 3-499-18878-3 , pp. 40-50.
  • Barbara I. Tshisuaka: James Parkinson. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 1108.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Barbara I. Tshisuaka: Parkinson, James. 2005, p. 1108.
  2. ↑ a b c Ralf Bröer: James Parkinson. In: Wolfgang U. Eckart , Christoph Gradmann (Hrsg.): Ärztelexikon. From antiquity to the 20th century. 1st edition. CH Beck, Munich 1995, pp. 276 + 277; Medical glossary. From antiquity to the present. 2nd Edition. 2001, p. 242; 3. Edition. Springer Verlag, Heidelberg / Berlin / New York 2006, pp. 251 + 252. doi: 10.1007 / 978-3-540-29585-3 .
  3. ↑ RD Currier, MM Currier: James Parkinson: On child abuse and other things. In: Archives of Neurology. Volume 48, 1991, pp. 95-97.
  4. ↑ Case of diseased vermiform appendix. In: Medico-surgical transactions. Volume 3, 1812, pp. 57-58. PMID 20895178 , PMC 2128895 (free full text).
personal data
SURNAME Parkinson, James
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British doctor, pharmacist and paleontologist
DATE OF BIRTH April 11, 1755
PLACE OF BIRTH Hoxton ( London )
DATE OF DEATH December 21, 1824
Place of death London