Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 43.djvu/300

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Parkes
294
Parkes

county, making innumerable drawings of antiquities and picturesque objects. He thus accumulated an important collection of books, prints, and antiquities connected with Shropshire. Parkes was a frequent contributor to the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ and was a well-known and prominent citizen at Shrewsbury. He died at Shrewsbury on 8 May 1833, and his library and collections were sold in the following August. He married Elizabeth Morris of Hadnall, Shropshire, by whom he had three sons and several daughters. Of his sons, James Parkes (1794–1828), born in 1794, practised as a drawing-master in Shrewsbury and assisted his father in his archæological drawings. He died on 31 March 1828. Twelve etchings by him of views of monastic and other remains in Shropshire were published posthumously in 1829. The younger son, John Parkes (1804–1832), also practised as a drawing-master.

[Gent. Mag. 1828 i. 376, 1832 ii. 578, 1833 i. 567; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists.]

L. C.

PARKES, EDMUND ALEXANDER (1819–1876), professor of hygiene and physician, born at Bloxham in Oxfordshire on 29 March 1819, was son of William Parkes, esq., of the Marble-yard, Warwick, and Frances, daughter of Thomas Byerley, the nephew and partner of Josiah Wedgewood. Frances Parkes wrote several very useful books, among others ‘Domestic Duties,’ which passed through many editions. Parkes was educated at Christ's Hospital, London, and received his professional training at University College and Hospital. His student's career was distinguished, and in 1841 he graduated M.B. at the university of London. In 1840 he became a member of the College of Surgeons. At an early age he worked in the laboratory of his uncle, Dr. Anthony Todd Thomson, and acquired a taste for original research and considerable manual dexterity. For Thomson he afterwards lectured on materia medica and medical jurisprudence.

In April 1842 he was gazetted assistant-surgeon to the 84th (York and Lancaster) regiment, and, when twenty-two years of age, embarked with it for India, where he passed somewhat less than three years, serving in Madras and Moulmein. During this period he obtained considerable experience of tropical diseases, particularly of dysentery, hepatitis, and cholera. In September 1845 he retired from the army, and, returning home, commenced practice in Upper Seymour Street, whence he subsequently removed to Harley Street; but he never attained a large practice. In 1846 he graduated M.D. at the university of London. He took as the subject of his thesis the connection between dysentery and Indian hepatitis. This paper, entitled ‘Remarks on the Dysentery and Hepatitis of India,’ contained advanced views on the pathology of the diseases, and was a most valuable essay. In 1847 he published a work ‘On Asiatic and Algide Cholera,’ which was written chiefly in India, where he had witnessed two violent epidemics; and in the following year a paper on ‘Intestinal Discharges in Cholera,’ and another on the ‘Early Cases of Cholera in London.’ In referring to the two former works, Sir William Jenner, in his observations on the labours and character of Dr. Parkes, delivered before the Royal College of Physicians, said: ‘Having regard to the age of their author, the circumstances under which the materials for them were collected, and their intrinsic merits, these two works are among the most remarkable in medical literature.’ In 1849 he wrote on ‘Diseases of the Heart’ in the ‘Medical Times,’ to which he was subsequently a frequent contributor; and in the same year he was elected special professor of clinical medicine at University College, and physician to University College Hospital. At the opening of one of the sessions of the college he delivered an introductory lecture on ‘Self-training by the Medical Student.’ ‘His published lectures tell something of the worth of his clinical work; but those who followed his teaching can alone tell how great was the influence he exercised over his class in inciting them to work, to accurate observation, and, above all, to the discharge of their daily duties as students of a profession on the proper exercise of which so much of the weal or woe of mankind must for ever depend’ (Jenner). In 1851 he completed and edited a new edition of Thomson's ‘Diseases of the Skin,’ and in 1852 he published a paper on the action of ‘Liquor Potassæ in Health and Disease.’ He also at that time wrote much for the ‘Medical Times.’ In 1855 he delivered the Gulstonian lectures on pyrexia at the Royal College of Physicians; they were published in the ‘Medical Times’ of that year. In the same year he was selected by the government to proceed to Turkey to select a site for, organise, and superintend a large civil hospital to relieve the pressure upon the hospitals at Scutari during the Crimean war. He finally selected Renkioi, on the Asiatic bank of the Dardanelles, and remained there till the close of the war in 1856. The results of his successful administration are recorded in his published report. From 1852 to 1855 he edited the ‘British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review.’ In 1860 an Army Medical School