William Gowers (neurologist)

Illustration of Parkinson's disease. Sir William Richard Gowers, neurologist, paediatrician, researcher and artist, drew this illustration in 1886 as part of his documentation of Parkinson's disease. The image appeared in his book, A Manual of Diseases of the Nervous System, still used today by medical professionals as a primary reference for this disease.

Sir William Richard Gowers (20 March 1845 – 4 May 1915) was a British neurologist.

In 1892, Gowers was one of the founding members of the National Society for the Employment of Epileptics (now the Epilepsy Society), along with Sir David Ferrier and John Hughlings Jackson.

Gowers gave his name to Gowers' sign (a sign of muscular weakness), the Gowers' tract (tractus spinocerebellaris anterior) in the nervous system and Gowers' Round (the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery's weekly case presentation and clinical teaching session).

He was the father of the civil servant and writer Sir Ernest Gowers, great-grandfather of the composer Patrick Gowers and the great-great-grandfather of mathematician Sir Timothy Gowers.

External links

• Documents relating to Gowers at the Queen Square Archive