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We should remember James Parkinson for more than the disease that bears his name

200 years ago, the iconic doctor published his paper discribing a now well known disease. But his other pamphlets were of a more revolutionary nature...

By Cherry Lewis
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Political_cartoon_of_the_London_Corresponding_Society.jpeg
Political_cartoon_of_the_London_Corresponding_Society.jpeg

by James Gillray, published by Hannah Humphrey, hand-coloured etching and aquatint, published 20 April 1798

This year, on World Parkinson’s Disease Day (11 April), we commemorate 200 years since publication of a medical classic – James Parkinson’s Essay on the Shaking Palsy, the condition now known as Parkinson’s disease. Written towards the end of Parkinson’s life, his name has been immortalised through the disease he identified.

But there is another, untold, story about this man which is even more remarkable.

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0