Biography parkinsons disease

English surgeon

For other people named James Parkinson, see James Parkinson (disambiguation).

James ParkinsonFGS (11 April 1755 – 21 December 1824)^[1] was an English surgeon, apothecary, geologist, palaeontologist and political activist.

He is best known for his 1817 work An Essay on the Shaking Palsy,^[2] in which he was the first to describe "paralysis agitans", a condition that would later be renamed Parkinson's disease by Jean-Martin Charcot.

History of parkinson's disease timeline

Early life

James Parkinson was born on 11 April 1755 in Shoreditch, London, England. He was the son of John Parkinson, an apothecary and surgeon practising in Hoxton Square in London,^[3] and the oldest of five siblings, including his brother William and his sister Mary Sedgwick.^[4] In 1784 Parkinson was approved by the City of London Corporation as a surgeon.

On 21 May 1783, he married Mary Dale, with whom he subsequently had eight children; two did not survive p