Project Gutenberg's An Essay on the Shaking Palsy, by James Parkinson

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Title: An Essay on the Shaking Palsy

Author: James Parkinson

Release Date: December 9, 2007 [EBook #23777]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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AN ESSAY ON THE SHAKING PALSY.

BY

_JAMES PARKINSON,_

MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS.

_LONDON:_

PRINTED BY WHITTINGHAM AND ROWLAND,

_Goswell Street,_

FOR SHERWOOD, NEELY, AND JONES,

PATERNOSTER ROW.

1817.

PREFACE.

The advantages which have been derived from the caution with which
hypothetical statements are admitted, are in no instance more obvious
than in those sciences which more particularly belong to the healing
art. It therefore is necessary, that some conciliatory explanation
should be offered for the present publication: in which, it is
acknowledged, that mere conjecture takes the place of experiment; and,
that analogy is the substitute for anatomical examination, the only
sure foundation for pathological knowledge.

When, however, the nature of the subject, and the circumstances under
which it has been here taken up, are considered, it is hoped that the
offering of the following pages to the attention of the medical
public, will not be severely censured. The disease, respecting which
the present inquiry is made, is of a nature highly afflictive.
Notwithstanding which, it has not yet obtained a place in the
classification of nosologists; some have regarded its characteristic
symptoms as distinct and different diseases, and others have given its
name to diseases differing essentially from it; whilst the unhappy
sufferer has considered it as an evil, from the domination of which he
had no prospect of escape.

The disease is of lon