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James Parkinson (11 April 1755 – 21 December 1824) (2025). 9781862392779, Geological Society. ISBN 9781862392779 was an English surgeon, apothecary, geologist, palaeontologist, and political activist. He is best known for his 1817 work An Essay on the Shaking Palsy, in which he was the first to describe "paralysis agitans", a condition that was later renamed Parkinson's disease by Jean-Martin Charcot.
On 21 May 1783, he married Mary Dale, with whom he subsequently had eight children; two did not survive past childhood. Soon after he was married, Parkinson succeeded his father in his practice in 1 Hoxton Square.
Parkinson was a strong advocate for the underprivileged, and an outspoken critic of the Pitt government. His early career was marked by his being involved in a variety of social and revolutionary causes, and some historians think he most likely was a strong proponent for the French Revolution. He published nearly 20 political pamphlets in the post-French Revolution period, while Britain was in political chaos. Writing under his own name and his pseudonym "Old Hubert", he called for radical reform movement and universal suffrage.
Parkinson called for representation of the people in the House of Commons, the institution of annual parliaments. He was a member of several secret political societies, including the London Corresponding Society and the Society for Constitutional Information. In 1794, his membership in the organisation led to him being examined under oath before William Pitt and the Privy Council to give evidence about a trumped-up plot to assassinate King George III. He refused to testify regarding his part in the Popgun Plot until he was certain he would not be forced to incriminate himself. The plan was to use a poisoned dart fired from a pop-gun to bring the king's reign to a premature conclusion. No charges were ever brought against Parkinson, but several of his friends languished in prison for many months before being acquitted.
Parkinson was interested in improving the general health and well-being of the population. His writings on public health revealed a concern for the welfare of the people similar to that expressed in his political activism. He was also a crusader for the 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.
He believed that any worthwhile surgeon should know shorthand, at which he was adept.
Parkinson erroneously suggested that the tremors in these patients were due to lesions in the cervical spinal cord.
In 1804, the first volume of his Organic Remains of a Former World was published. Gideon Mantell praised it as "the first attempt to give a familiar and scientific account of fossils". A second volume was published in 1808, and a third in 1811. Parkinson illustrated each volume and his daughter Emma coloured some of the plates. The plates were later reused by Gideon Mantell. In 1822, Parkinson published the shorter "Outlines of Oryctology: an Introduction to the Study of Fossil Organic Remains, especially of those found in British Strata".
Parkinson also contributed several papers to William Nicholson's "A Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, and the Arts", and in the first, second, and fifth volumes of the Geological Society's Transactions. He wrote a single volume Outlines of Oryctology in 1822, a more popular work. On 13 November 1807, Parkinson and other distinguished gentlemen met at the Freemasons' Tavern in London. The gathering included such great names as Sir Humphry Davy, Arthur Aikin, and George Bellas Greenough. This was to be the first meeting of the Geological Society of London. History of the Geological Society , UK.
Parkinson belonged to a school of thought, catastrophism, that concerned itself with the belief that the Earth's geology and biosphere were shaped by recent, large-scale cataclysms. He cited the Noachian deluge of Genesis as an example, and he firmly believed that creation and extinction were processes guided by the hand of God. His view on Creationism was that each "day" was actually a much longer period, that lasted perhaps tens of thousands of years.
Parkinson's life is commemorated with a stone tablet inside the church of St Leonard's, Shoreditch, where he was a member of the congregation; the exact site of his grave is not known and his body may lie in the crypt or in the churchyard. A blue plaque at 1 Hoxton Square marks the site of his home. Several fossils were named after him. No portrait of him is known. A photograph sometimes identified as an image of him is of a dentist of the same name; he died before the invention of photography.
World Parkinson's Day is held each year on his birthday, 11 April. In addition to the eponymous disease, Parkinson is commemorated in the names of several fossil organisms, including the ammonite Parkinsonia parkinsoni, the crinoid Apiocrinus parkinsoni, the snail Rostellaria parkinsoni, and the tree Nipa parkinsoni. (2025). 9781439807149, CRC Press. ISBN 9781439807149
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