ABSTRACT
James Parkinson wrote in his historic Essay on the Shaking Palsy, published in 1817 (1), that there was “sufficient reason for hoping that some remedial process may ere long be discovered, by which, at least, the progress of the disease may be stopped…although the removing of the effects already produced, might be hardly to be expected.” Until such a remedy was discovered, however, he could only propose bleeding, vesicatories, and purging the bowels, albeit not with great enthusiasm. Specifically, he recommended “bleeding from the upper part of the back of the neck…after which vesicatories should be applied to the same part and a purulent discharge obtained by appropriate use of Sabine Liniment.”
