The Ocular Afflictions of Dr Samuel Johnson
SPECIAL ARTICLE Blinking Sam The Ocular Afflictions of Dr Samuel Johnson Graham A. Wilson, MB, ChB, FRANZCO; James G. Ravin, MD, MS he poor health of Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) has fascinated the public for more than 200 years. The illnesses of few famous men, with the possible exception of Napoleon, have attracted more speculation. Johnson was an outstanding 18th-century literary figure, an essayist, novelist, and poet, and is particularly famous as the creator of the first important Tdictionary of the English language. His writings and those of his physicians and friends, particularly his biographer, James Boswell, provide an intimate account of a cultural icon. Arch Ophthalmol. 2004;122:1370-1374 Samuel Johnson had a multitude of physi- was born in the town of Lichfield in 1709, cal and psychological ailments. From the the son of a bookseller. He studied lan- beginning of his life as a hypoxic new- guages, literature, ethics, and theology at born, he was troubled by numerous ill- the University of Oxford, but, impover- nesses, including neonatal abscess of the ished and depressed, he left before obtain- buttocks, probable smallpox, and deaf- ing a degree. Nervousness, odd manners, ness in the left ear (and both ears later in and ill health made it difficult for Johnson life). As he put it, “My health has been, from to find work. Eventually, he became a my twentieth year, such as has seldom af- schoolmaster and later was employed by forded me a single day of ease.”1(pp147,148) a publisher. At the age of 26 years, he mar- The most important of his ailments were ried a widow 20 years older than he.
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