In 1817, James Parkinson published an essay on six cases of paralysis agitans known as Shaking Palsy. This paper shows how the Essay radically re-formulated a diverse array of human dysmobilities as a “species” of disease.

Parkinson incorporated medical observation with a clear focus on patient experience and subjectivity in a deeply affecting narrative, fusing clinical and urban case-descriptions within the genre of a sentimental natural history.

His detailed, diagnostic portrayal of the malady recast earlier descriptions of trembling, posture and gait disorder within a new narrative order, simultaneously recruiting reader involvement to the plight of sufferers. Hardly any clinical examination as we know it today undergirds what remains an exemplary account of disciplined medical witness.

The Essay demonstrates the potential of case construction and powerful, sympathetic case writing to transform clinical understanding of a complex medical condition of long duration.

Other neurologists that furthered the knowledge of the disease include Armand Trousseau, Wilhelm Heinrich Erb, Sir William Richard Gowers, Jean-Martin Charcot and Kinnier Wilson. Charcot’s studies were a landmark in understanding the disease. Charcot also suggested renaming of the disease in honor of James Parkinson.