James Parkinson - Medicine

Medicine

Parkinson turned away from his tumultuous political career, and between 1799 and 1807 published a number of medical works, including a work on gout in 1805. He was also responsible for the earliest writings on the subject of peritonitis in English medical literature.

Parkinson was the first person to systematically describe 6 individuals with symptoms of the disease that bears his name. He did not formally examine these patients but observed them on daily walks, and in some cases obtained from them their disease-symptom histories by simple inquiry. It was Jean Martin Charcot who coined the term "Parkinson's disease" over 60 years later.

Parkinson was also interested in improving the general health and well-being of the population. He wrote several medical doctrines that exposed a similar zeal for the health and welfare of the people that was expressed by 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 in English, and the first instance in which perforation was shown to be the cause of death.