Leonardo discribes PD

[rayilynlee <rayilynlee@xxxxxxx>]

PARKINSON'S DISEASE NEWS

2nd May 2008 - History
Leonardo da Vinci's descriptions of  Parkinson's disease
The Italian artist, engineer and scientist Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) 
also studied anatomy, physiology and medicine. Leonardo da Vinci kept secret 
notebooks in which he wrote and sketched his ideas and observations. So keen 
was he to study the human body that he went out at night to dissect human 
corpses. For more information go to Leonardo da Vinci. He saw people whose 
symptoms coincided with the tremors seen in Parkinson's Disease. Leonardo 
wrote in his notebooks that "you will see.....those who.....move their 
trembling parts, such as their heads or hands without permission of the 
soul; (the) soul with all its forces cannot prevent these parts from 
trembling." In a translatiom of Da Vinci's notebooks "The movements of 
paralytics of those benumbed by cold, whose head and members move without 
control of the soul, who cannot stop the movements." The combination of 
difficulty with voluntary movement ("paraletici") and tremor ("tremanti') 
leave little doubt of the diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease. At the end of 
his life Leonardo was unable to paint due to the loss of control of movement 
in his hands. It has been suggested that, by then, Leonardo had Parkinson's 
Disease. Due to most of his notebooks remaining secret for centuries, 
Leonardo did not receive any credit for contributing to the recognition of 
Parkinson's Disease.

Rayilyn Brown
Board Member AZNPF
Arizona Chapter National Parkinson's Foundation
rbrown@xxxxxxxxx 

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