Samuel Johnson's health

Samuel Johnson's health has been a focus of the biographical and critical analysis of his life. His medical history was well documented by Johnson and his friends, and those writings have allowed later critics and doctors to infer diagnoses of conditions that were unknown in Johnson's day.

His health and conditions had "damaging effects on Johnson's personal and professional lives" likely causing him to lose opportunities to teach at prominent schools, while leading him "towards the invisible occupation of authorship".

Upon birth, Johnson did not cry and, with doubts surrounding the newborn's health, his aunt claimed "that she would not have picked such a poor creature up in the street". As it was feared that the baby might die, the vicar of St Mary's was summoned to perform a baptism. Two godfathers were chosen: Samuel Swynfen, a physician and graduate of Pembroke College, and Richard Wakefield, a lawyer, coroner, and Lichfield town clerk.

Johnson's health improved and he was placed in the nursing care of Joan Marklew. During this period he contracted what is believed to have been scrofula, known at that time as the "King's Evil". Sir John Floyer, a former physician to Charles II, recommended that the young Johnson should receive the "royal touch", which he received from Queen Anne on 30 March 1712 at St James's Palace. Johnson was given a ribbon in memory of the event, which he claimed to have worn for the rest of his life. However, the ritual was ineffective and an operation was performed that left him with permanent scarring across his face and body.

From early childhood, Johnson suffered from poor eyesight. Especially his left eye was weak. This interfered with his education, yet his handwriting was quite legible until the end of his life. There were somewhat contradictory reports about his eyesight from his contemporaries; he appeared to have been near-sighted. Yet he did not use eyeglasses, which were available at that time.

His eyesight became worse with age. Boswell first met him in 1763, when Johnson was 54 years old, and noted that he had inflamed eyes. In letters written in 1773 Johnson wrote,

"My fever has departed but has left me a very severe inflammation in the seeing [right] eye. . . . My eye is yet so dark that I could not read..."

In 1734, Johnson feared that he was suffering from a disease that would lead to him being deemed mad. He wrote, in Latin, a letter asking Samuel Swynfen, his godfather, about his health. Swynfen wrote back "from the symptoms therein described, he could think nothing better of his disorder, than it had a tendency to insanity; and without great care might possibly terminate in the deprivation of his rational faculties." This Swynfen's response only caused Johnson to fear becoming insane even more. However, Swynfen soon after showed Johnson's letter to others because of its "extraordinary acuteness, research, and eloquence", and this act was so upsetting to Johnson that he could never forgive Swynfen.

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