Post by garrity on Oct 28, 2011 14:31:26 GMT -5
There are many books/essays that are imprinted in the history because they were instrumental in creating a drastic change in the society. We can name many books like The Republic by Plato, Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels and On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, and many essays like On Truth by Francis Bacon and A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf. The list can be very long.
In the medical field, there are many essays/research papers that contributed to identifying/creating awareness of a disease. An essay on the shaking palsy by James Parkinson is one among them. The essay contributed to the treatment of Parkinson's disease and until its publication in 1817, the disease was not recognized formally by the medical fraternity.
This does not mean that the disease had not existed before 1817. There were documents like an Egyptian papyrus dating back to 12th century BC, mentioning the symptoms of the disease. The symptoms such as lack of movement, tremor etc were described in a 10th century BC Ayurvedic text too.
Though many ancient documents are available referring to some of the symptoms, the document which gave a precise, comprehensive idea on the disease was the essay by Parkinson. But the document came into limelight only after forty years. Many doctors and researchers have contributed to the further study of the topic and the research is still going on. It is not just the mainstream allopathic medical system which contributes to the research on Parkinson's disease. The alternative medical systems such as Ayurveda too are into intensive researches and various experiments conducted in parkinson's ayurvedic treatment have proved to be effective in some patients to an extent
In the medical field, there are many essays/research papers that contributed to identifying/creating awareness of a disease. An essay on the shaking palsy by James Parkinson is one among them. The essay contributed to the treatment of Parkinson's disease and until its publication in 1817, the disease was not recognized formally by the medical fraternity.
This does not mean that the disease had not existed before 1817. There were documents like an Egyptian papyrus dating back to 12th century BC, mentioning the symptoms of the disease. The symptoms such as lack of movement, tremor etc were described in a 10th century BC Ayurvedic text too.
Though many ancient documents are available referring to some of the symptoms, the document which gave a precise, comprehensive idea on the disease was the essay by Parkinson. But the document came into limelight only after forty years. Many doctors and researchers have contributed to the further study of the topic and the research is still going on. It is not just the mainstream allopathic medical system which contributes to the research on Parkinson's disease. The alternative medical systems such as Ayurveda too are into intensive researches and various experiments conducted in parkinson's ayurvedic treatment have proved to be effective in some patients to an extent