Will the Real James Parkinson Please Stand Up? Another Fake James Parkinson

It was with great curiosity that two authors of the current article (S.A.C.T. and C.A.S.R.) read Drs. Lees, Eyre, and Brown's article, “The True Face of James Parkinson,” published earlier this year in The Lancet Neurology.1 The article drew the reader's attention to two phoney photographs of James Parkinson2, 3; however, one of the photographs being that of his most common doppelgänger, James Cumine Parkinson, who was born in Northern Ireland and died as a lighthouse keeper in Tasmania.

Portrait photography was not possible during Parkinson's life, and despite his eminence as a pioneer paleontologist and geologist, no paintings of him have been discovered. Even though he remains faceless over two hundred years after his seminal description of the shaking palsy, James Parkinson is known worldwide.4

While attending the XLII Annual Meeting of the Mexican Academy of Neurology (Academia Mexicana de Neurología, AMN) from November 5 to 11, 2018 in the Mayan city of Mérida, Yucatán, we noticed that each lecture hall was named after a preeminent figure in the History of Neurology. At the entrance of the showroom, a photograph of the grand master was on display, adorned by a beautiful ouroboros (the mythical self‐eating snake) made of the feathered‐serpent Mayan God, Kukulkán, along with a brief annotation on the importance of each figure. Luminaries included Jean‐Martin Charcot (father of modern neurology) and his pupil Joseph Babinski, Santiago Ramón y Cajal, and James Parkinson. While it was not a complete surprise to find another fake Parkinson, we were indeed amazed to find out this was a doppelgänger that had not been previously used (Fig. 1). Using a reverse‐image Internet search we were able to swiftly identify the latest impostor: William James (1842–1910), considered “the Father of American psychology” and brother to the writer Henry James. The crew responsible for the reunion's visual design told us they had found the William James picture online labeled as James Parkinson, so they included it. A search for “James Parkinson” on Google Images led us to find the photograph in question on a Peruvian webpage.5

Figure 1.

William James, psychologist: the latest James Parkinson doppelgänger.

The insatiable desire to put a face to the name in the hagiography of neurology is commendable, but sloppy plagiarism is one of the “seven deadly medical sins” and reminds neurologists to always double‐check their sources.

Author Roles

1. Research Project: A. Conception, B. Organization, C. Execution; 2. Statistical Analysis: A. Design, B. Execution, C. Review and Critique; 3. Manuscript Preparation: A. Writing the First Draft, B. Review and Critique.

S.A.CT.: 1A, 1B, 1C, 3A

C.A.S.R.: 1A, 1C

I.E.B.: 1A, 1C, 3B

A.J.L.: 1A, 1C, 3B

Disclosures

Ethical Compliance Statement: As this manuscript does not involve patients, institutional review board or ethics committee approval was waived and informed patient consent was not necessary for this work. We confirm that we have read the Journal's position on issues involved in ethical publication and affirm that this work is consistent with those guidelines.

Funding Sources and Conflict of Interest: Andrew Lees is funded by the Reta Lila Weston Institute of Neurological Studies, University College London, Institute of Neurology and reports consultancies for: Britannia Pharmaceuticals, BIAL Portela. He also reports grants and/or research support: from the Frances and Renee Hock Fund, and honoraria from Britannia Pharmaceuticals, Profile Pharma, UCB, Roche, BIAL, Nordiclnfu Care, NeuroDerm, Decision Resources and Windrose Consulting Group.

Financial Disclosures for the previous 12 months: The authors declare that there are no additional disclosures to report.