The Enlightened Mr. Parkinson: The Pioneering Life of a Forgotten Surgeon

by Cherry Lewis

Overview

A colorful and absorbing portrait of James Parkinson and the turbulent, intellectually vibrant world of Georgian London.

Parkinson’s disease is one of the most common forms of dementia, with 60,000 new cases each year in the United States alone, yet few know anything about the man the disease is named after. In 1817—two hundred years years ago—James Parkinson (1755–1824) defined this mysterious ailment so precisely that we still diagnose Parkinson's Disease today by recognizing the symptoms he identified.

The story of this remarkable man’s contributions to the Age of the Enlightenment is told through his three seemingly disparate passions: medicine, politics and fossils. As a political radical, Parkinson was interrogated over a plot to kill King George III and was in danger of exile. But simultaneously, he was helping Edward Jenner set up smallpox vaccination stations across London and writing the first scientific study of fossils in English, jump-starting a national craze. He is one of the intellectual pioneers of "the age of wonder," forgotten to history, but Cherry Lewis restores this amazing man to his rightful place in history with her evocative portrait of the man and his era.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681774954
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	08/08/2017
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	23 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Cherry Lewis is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Bristol. She is the author of The Dating Game: One Man’s Search for the Age of the Earth (Cambridge University Press, 2000).
Cherry Lewis is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Bristol. She is the author of The Dating Game: One Man's Search for the Age of the Earth (Cambridge University Press, 2000).

Table of Contents

Parkinson family tree vi

Prologue: A hole in the head ix

1 Living and bleeding in London 1

2 The hanged man 23

3 Fear of the knife 31

4 The radical Mr. Parkinson 45

5 The Pop Gun Plot 67

6 Trials and other tribulations 81

7 Dangerous sports 103

8 A pox in all your houses 117

9 The fossil question 133

10 A sublime and difficult science 147

11 'Tis a mad, mad world in Hoxton 165

12 The name of the father, and of the son 187

13 The shaking palsy 203

14 Reforms and rewards 221

Epilogue: A fragment of DNA 243

A few words of thanks 257

Notes and references 261

Bibliography 281

Picture credits 299

Index 301

Editorial Reviews

★ 05/29/2017
Lewis, a research scholar at the University of Bristol, lifts from the shadows of history the fascinating story of James Parkinson (1755–1824), the Enlightenment-age surgeon-apothecary who first described the neurodegenerative condition that now bears his name. Parkinson emerges as a committed naturalist—he was among the founders of the Geological Society of London and compiled an unparalleled collection of fossils—and doctor (one of the first in London to offer smallpox vaccinations), as well as a fearless warrior for social justice during the turbulent dawning of the Industrial Revolution. Yet Parkinson’s name lives on because of his 1817 work “Essay on the Shaking Palsy,” a pamphlet favorably received in its day that nevertheless went on to be seen as “just another pamphlet in his long list of publications.” However, Parkinson’s groundbreaking work, as Lewis notes, represented a “farsighted, questioning approach” that “left us with a remarkable scientific and medical legacy.” Lewis’s lively, captivating biography illuminates the life and work of a pioneer who may have largely faded from medical history, but whose curiosity and passion are as relevant today as they were 200 years ago. Agent: Peter Tallack, Science Factory. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

Parkinson lived through especially turbulent times, with the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars fomenting social and political unrest in Britain and elsewhere. Even if he had not described ‘his’ disease, Parkinson would still be an important historical figure. As Cherry Lewis shows in The Enlightened Mr. Parkinson, a fine biography of an unusual East London general practitioner, there are many reasons to admire him.

The Wall Street Journal

The pensive and passionate Parkinson is portrayed as a character caught in a sort of temporal paradox as a clinician ahead of his time in some ways, a scientist infatuated with prehistoric eras, and a citizen restless and uneasy with society and living conditions in his world.

Booklist

A fascinating, illustrated account of the life and times of James Parkinson. Lewis pieces together voluminous information from the late 18th and early 19th centuries to form her compelling tale. Anyone interested in the history of medicine, politics and geology will enjoy this book.

The Washington Post

The pensive and passionate Parkinson is portrayed as a character caught in a sort of temporal paradox as a clinician ahead of his time in some ways, a scientist infatuated with prehistoric eras, and a citizen restless and uneasy with society and living conditions in his world.

Booklist

07/01/2017
One might think that a biography of James Parkinson, the man for whom Parkinson's disease is named (owing to an essay he wrote in 1817 describing the symptoms of what he called "the shaking palsy"), would focus largely on the condition itself. In fact, the majority of Lewis's (Honorary Research Fellow, Univ. of Bristol, UK; The Dating Game: One Man's Search for the Age of the Earth) biography concerns the many significant scientific and medical contributions Parkinson made in other areas during the early 19th century. For example, Parkinson's three-volume Organic Remains of a Former World cataloged 700 fossils and was the first of its kind, formally launching the field of British paleontology. Following a linear chronology, this accessible title illuminates the life of this largely unknown doctor. Though Parkinson had a medical practice in the British village of Hoxton, he also pursued many other interests. After a brief stint advocating for parliamentary reform (these efforts almost landed him in prison when he was accused of plotting to overthrow George III), he turned to other endeavors, such as working to improve the conditions of paupers and child laborers. Parkinson was active in efforts to vaccinate against smallpox and conceived of the best way to treat victims of typhus. VERDICT Recommended for medical historians and those who love biographies (particularly those of important yet largely forgotten figures).—Ragan O'Malley, Saint Ann's Sch., Brooklyn

Library Journal

2017-04-30
A biography of the doctor who first defined the "debilitating condition" that has become "one of the most familiar of all neurological disorders."In 1817, British surgeon James Parkinson (1755-1824) described the symptoms of a frightening neurodegenerative disease, the second most common after Alzheimer's. He was a Renaissance man who tried his hand at natural history and politics, and British geologist and historian Lewis (The Dating Game: One Man's Search for the Age of the Earth, 2000) turns this into a fine biography of a colorful figure who lived in a turbulent era. In 18th-century Britain, the term "doctor" referred to a university-trained physician. Having a lower status but an arduous apprenticeship, surgeons like Parkinson were called "Mister," but their responsibilities overlapped. Medical practitioners of the time were ignorant, but they didn't think so. A card-carrying member of the Enlightenment, Parkinson shared the movement's belief in progress and experimental research, but, unlike 18th-century physical science, medicine remained a slave to ancient theories. Readers will squirm as Parkinson and his colleagues bleed, blister, purge, and poison patients with a confidence that gave the surgeon a nationwide reputation that he burnished with a steady stream of scientific papers and books, including a bestseller of popular health advice. He was, however, an acute observer, and his slim 1817 monograph, An Essay on the Shaking Palsy, became a medical classic for its detailed, insightful depiction of the malady given the name Parkinson's disease—but not until 50 years later. Fascinated by fossils, he assembled a world-class collection and helped found the Geological Society of London in 1807, the world's first. Parkinson's overall contributions to medicine may be trivial except for a name, but Lewis delivers an appealing, often gruesome account of the life of a workaholic, highly respected physician from a far-off time.

Kirkus Reviews