Samuel Johnson's childhood illnesses and the King's Evil.

'HERE is a brave boy,' proclaimed George Hector,* when he brought Samuel Johnson into the world. From this moment and throughout most of his childhood, young Sam was harassed by a variety of afflictions that troubled his daily existence, but did not prevent him from eventually becoming one of England's outstanding literary figures. Samuel Johnson's adult illnesses and the history of his childhood have been described by many writers, but no separate work is available on his childhood medical history. The purpose of this paper is to describe Johnson's childhood medical disorders and their consequences. The principal source of information on this period in Johnson's life is from an autobiographical sketch, An account of the life of Dr. Samuel Johnson from his birth to his eleventh year, written by himself. Johnson apparently called this his 'Annals' and his two principal biographers, Boswell and Hawkins, did not know of its existence. This was written when he was 55 years old and was 'among the mass of papers which were ordered to be committed to the flames a few days before his death.'** Johnson's 'Annals' gives a record of his early affections, but it contains a rather questionable medical implication that has been perpetuated as fact. This is that Johnson developed tuberculosis during the first few weeks of his life. We propose to point out that this is unlikely and to show that it is much more probable that he developed tuberculosis later, when he was about two years old.