Based on observation and experimentation, some treatments were devised to treat the symptoms of PD, but it was generally accepted that the disease was incurable. Keep in mind that most of these attempts were unsuccessful.
Treatment Apparatus
Charcot noticed that some patients experienced relief of the symptoms during long train or carriage rides. He thought that this was due to the bouncing and trembling. Based on this assumption, he made a trembling armchair. This wasn't the only contribution made by Charcot. He also built a harness attached to a pulley system that hung his patients in the air. The harness fit under the chin and the back of the head and also under the armpits.
SurgeriesSeveral ablate motor cortex and premotor cortex surgeries were attempted. In 1937, a cortical surgery, devised by Victor Horsley in 1890, was tried out. This particular surgery ended in a high death rate, there was residual paresis, and most of them did not relieve the symptoms. Another famous one was the basal ganglia surgery. This consisted of removing the head of the caudate nucleus and making incisions in the globus pallidus. Some surgeons even tried sectioning the pyramidal tract. These surgeries, too were not effective and often resulted in the same outcomes as the cortical surgery.
Drugs
By the end of the 19th century, arsenic, opium, and various sedatives were used to alleviate the symptoms. Later these were replaced by scopolamine and stramonium. Next doctors used artane and parpanit. It wasn't until the 1960's that L-dopa became "the drug of choice". (Finger, 1994)