John Parkin

John Parkin was born on 10 May 1801, the son of an officer of HM Dockyards at Sheerness and Chatham. Born with spina bifida, he trained in medicine in London and became a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1822. He established a practice in Dover Street, London, but travelled extensively throughout Spain studying cholera. He twice visited the West Indies to study and treat outbreaks, the second time as HM Medical Inspector, and later travelled to Kolkata and Rome. In 1846 he published 'On the antidotal treatment of the epidemic cholera', which was reprinted several times. He died at Brighton on 18 March 1886.