Early descriptions : History of Parkinson's disease

Several early sources describe symptoms resembling those of PD. An Egyptian papyrus from the 12th century B.C. mentions a king drooling with age and the Bible contains a number of references to tremor. An Ayurvedic medical treatise from the 10th century B.C. describes a disease that evolves with tremor, lack of movement, drooling and other symptoms of PD. Moreover, this disease was treated with remedies derived from the mucuna family, which is rich in L-DOPA. Galen wrote about a disease that almost certainly was PD, describing tremors that occur only at rest, postural changes and paralysis.

After Galen there are no references unambiguously related to PD until the 17th century. In this and the following century several authors wrote about elements of the disease, preceding the description by Parkinson. Franciscus Sylvius, like Galen, distinguished tremor at rest from other tremors, while Johannes Baptiste Sagar and Hieronymus David Gaubius described festination, a term for the gait abnormalities characteristic of PD. John Hunter provided a thorough description of the disease, which may have given Parkinson the idea of collecting and describing patients with "paralysis agitans". Finally, Auguste François Chomel in his pathology treatise, which was contemporary to Parkinson's essay, included several descriptions of abnormal movements and rigidity matching those seen in PD.