HISTORY OF NEUROLOGY- Progressive atrophy of the globus pallidus (primary atrophy of the pallidal system). A system disease of the paralysis agitans type, characterized by atrophy of the motor cells of the corpus striatum. A contribution to the function of the corpus striatum. By J. Ramsay Hunt MD, New York. Brain 1917; 40: 58–148

Is it the ‘shaking palsy’, ‘paralysis agitans’ or ‘Parkinson’s disease’? For James Ramsay Hunt (1872–1937), writing 100 years ago and 100 years after James Parkinson (1755–1824)—general medical practitioner, apothecary, geologist, palaeontologist and political activist—described ‘involuntary tremulous motion, with lessened muscular power, in parts not in action or even when supported; with a propensity to bend the trunk forwards, and to pass from a walking to a running pace; the senses and intellects being uninjured’ in the inhabitants of Hoxton Square, East London, none of these is entirely correct. Parkinson’s model of exactness and clarity of expression is ‘merely a delineation by means of which a certain group of cases [can] readily be recognised and differentiated… a syndrome… which may be caused by a variety of pathological...

Brain 2017