DescriptionWriting by a Parkinson's disease patient.png	English: Writing by a patient with Parkinson's disease, showing abnormalities, which may include micrographia
Date	1879
Source	Lectures on the diseases of the nervous system. Published 1879. Second edition by H. C. Lea in Philadelphia. Lecture V: On paralysis agitans. (p. 112)
Author	Jean-Martin Charcot
Permission (Reusing this file)	Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer. You must also include a United States public domain tag to indicate why this work is in the public domain in the United States. This file has been identified as being free of known restrictions under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights. https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/PDMCreative Commons Public Domain Mark 1.0falsefalse
Other versions	File:Writing by a Parkinson's disease patient.jpg

Text accompanying the image in the original source:

The tremor causes the handwriting to exhibit characters which are somewhat special. When the disease is commencing, the writing at first glance seems normal, but when examined with a magnifying glass inequalities are perceived, some parts being thicker and heavier than others. Later on, in the period of stationary intensity for instance, the changes are more marked and consequently plainer. The specimen, Fig. 7 (p. 112), represents the writing of a patient whose case we studied at the Hôpital St. Louis, in 1869. The strokes forming the letters are very irregular and sinuous, whilst the irregularities and sinuosities are of a very limited width (Bourneville).
On a careful examination of this specimen of writing it will be perceived that the down-strokes are all, with the exception of the first letter, made with comparative firmness and are, in fact, nearly normal — the finer up-strokes, on the contrary, are all tremulous in appearance, and it is to the unsteadiness of these lines that the peculiar character of the writing here is principally due. From this I would infer, that the flexors of the fingers were, at this stage of the disease, less affected by tremor than the extensors, and that, amongst the latter, the interossei were probably the earliest affected. This inference will not be without interest for those who remember the attention which Dr. Duchenne (de Boulogne) gave to the conduct of these muscles in the various paralytic and atrophic affections of the hand (Sigerson).

The handwritten text reads: "Catherine Metzger 13 Octobre 1869".