[History of Parkinson's disease]

History of Parkinson's disease includes four periods: clinical, neuropathological, neurosurgical and biochemical. An "Essay on the shaking Palsy" by James Parkinson introduces the clinical period in 1817. Tretiakoff thesis defines pathology of the substantia nigra in 1919. Surgical treatment are various neurophysiological approachs, and biochemical discoveries open the way to medical treatment.