Society’s lecture will examine the pioneering work of surgeon who gave his name to Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson




English surgeon James Parkinson is most famous for publishing ‘An Essay on the Shaking Palsy’ in 1817, which established Parkinson’s disease as a recognised medical condition. He was a pioneer not only in medicine but also in his scientific and political interests.

Now his life’s work is the to be the subject of the Fourth Dr Brian Owen-Smith Memorial Lecture, which is the first such lecture of the 2017 programme of the West Sussex History of Medicine Society (incorporating the Chichester Clinical Society).

James Parkinson was a pioneer not only in medicine but also in his scientific and political interests. He was the first to describe “paralysis agitans”. This was later named Parkinson’s disease after him.

The son of an apothecary/surgeon, he was born on 11 April 1755. This is why Parkinson’s Awareness Week in April each year, and 11 April is now World Parkinson’s Day.

It is the opening lecture in a series which starts in October, all of which are to be held at the Chichester Medical Education Centre, at the city’s St Richard’s Hospital.

See below for the full list of lectures, with times and dates:

Saturday 14th October
1.The Fourth Dr Brian Owen-Smith Memorial Lecture
‘“James Parkinson” Professor Ken Shaw MA MD FRCP

2. “Keats and Medicine, an exploration of the relationship”
Professor Sean Hughes MS FRCSEd(Ortho) FRCS FRCSI DHMSA

Saturday 28th October

1.“Franklinism, Galvanism and Mesmerism: Electricity and Magnetism in Medicine” Dr Nicholas Cambridge MD MRCS FSA FLS FRSA

2. “Dr John Paulley (1918-2007), a distinctive and distinguished physician.”
Dr Peter Down MB BS FRCP DHMSA

Saturday 11th November

1.“The life, work and legacy of Professor Dr Nicholai Pirogov”
Major-General (Ret’d) Mungo Melvin CB OBE
2. “Facial reconstruction in Italy in WW1 ”
Miss Emily Stone

Saturday 25th November

1. “The Plague: 1000BC to 2000AD” Dr Tim Mason BSc MSc PhD

2. “Medicinal drugs: their Odyssey from pre-history to the present-day”
Dr Peter Bennett MD FRCP DHMSA

Saturday 9th December

1. ”President Roosevelt’s stroke, causes, consequences and conspiracies.”
Professor Gareth Beevers MD FRCP FBHS

2. “A short history of Quality in the NHS”
Dr Charles Shaw PhD MB BS FHSM FHPM

For further details contact Prof John Richardson 01243-780786, or [email protected],
or 1 Franklin Place, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 1BL.

Free car parking for meetings adjacent to the Chichester Medical Education Centre.




About the Author

Carl Eldridge
Carl Eldridge is a hugely experienced journalist who has worked on local and national newspapers, magazines and written for websites over the past 30 years. He lives in Bognor Regis with his wife and son. And he is a life-long Arsenal fan.