James Parkinson, according to the parish register of St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, London, was born on April 11, 1755. family lived in Hoxton Square, in the East Center of London, and were evidently well-to-do, the father, John Parkinson, being a surgeon. Little is known of Parkinson's life, but he attended a course of John Hunter's lectures on surgery in 1785, and as his father died in 1784 it is likely that he entered practice at that time. L. G. Rowntree 1 managed to collect considerable information about Parkinson by delving through his books. One of them, called The Hospital Pupil, was written in 1800 for the parents of those who were destined to study medicine or surgery. In this book Parkinson spoke in the highest terms of the value of an apprenticeship in a hospital, and it is fair to conclude that he was writing from his own experience. When