James Parkinson (1755–1824), one-man band, apothecary–surgeon, philanthropist, medical popularizer, social reformer, political activist, chemist, geologist and paleontologist

Abstract

James Parkinson was not only a London surgeon-apothecary, but also a philanthropist, popularizer, pioneer of medical pedagogy, social reformer, political activist, chemist, geologist and eminent palaeontologist: a one-man band of sorts. Yet, all these activities did not prevent him from remaining all his life a good Christian and churchwarden of St Leonard's ( Fig. 1 ), the parish church in his district of Shoreditch in London. Parkinson was the defender and protector of children and of the mentally ill. He published books on the popularization of medicine. In a pamphlet on the education of medical students, he dealt with the qualities necessary for a young man destined for the medical profession, with particular emphasis on empathy. Under the pseudonym of “Old Hubert”, Parkinson wrote numerous pamphlets in which he humorously defended his views as a social reformer and political activist. He sympathized with the deprived, the disenfranchised and the workers. He became a member of two secret societies fighting for the rights of the people and human rights: the London Corresponding Society and the Society for Constitutional Information. A book on chemistry for the profane that Parkinson published in 1800 was resolutely modern, and opposed the assertions of Priestley, while favoring the antiphlogistic theories of Lavoisier. Parkinson was also one of the 13 founding members of the British Geological Society, and the founder of scientific paleontology . Organic Remains is his most famous book in that field and, in his honor, his name has been given to several fossils.