An ordinary meeting of the Society was held on the 1st November 2017. The President was in the chair. He introduced the evening’s speaker, Dr Christopher Gardiner-Thorpe who spoke to the title “ Mr Parkinson and his Shaking Palsy”.
James Parkinson was born in Hoxton Square in Shoreditch, then a separate village in the country near London, in 1755. His father was a surgeon and apothecary.He was the eldest of 5 siblings. In 1783 he married and eventually had 8 children two of whom died in infancy.He established himself in his Father’s practice having been registered as a surgeon in 1784.In addition to a flourishing medical practice, he had an avid interest in geology and palaeontology, as well as politics for a time. He published many pamphlets mainly concerned with the underprivileged and poor. He was a supporter of universal suffrage which was a controversial subject at that time. He attacked Pitt’s government frequently and he was accused of being involved in a trumped up plot to kill King George the 3rd with a poisoned dart fired from a pop-gun. Fortunately no charges were brought. He was also a pillar of the local church and gave his time working for the impoverished. As a doctor he was very concerned about the poor. He wrote a self help book on medicine and a pamphlet on protecting children from head injuries. He recognised in another pamphlet that the poor had to buy their own trusses for hernia and gave advice on how to make your own. He also played a part in changing the law so that two signatories were needed to commit someone to the madhouse. His most famous book, which is a very small one, is called “An Essay, on the Shaking Palsy”and was published in 1817. It is a study of 6 patients. Three were his own patients and three he came across in the street. He named the condition Paralysis Agitans. Only 100 copies of the book were printed. After this little interest was shown in the condition. Sixty years later Charcot named the condition as “ La Maladie de Parkinson”. Neurology as a speciality only developed in the early 1900s but there was still a long gap before the condition was seriously studied. Parkinson didn’t study the natural history of the disease but described the condition as he saw it. He didn’t follow up the cases as we would do nowadays.
Parkinson was also very well known as a geologist and palaeontologist. In 1801 he wrote a three volume work “Organic Remains of a Former World” which was illustrated by his daughter Emma, as well as other works on the subject. He was a founder member of The Geological Society. He died in 1824.
The President thanked Dr Gardiner-Thorpe for a fascinating lecture.There being no other business the meeting was closed at 21.58pm.