An address on the medical history of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Pepys : Read before the Abernethian Society on March 6th, 1895 / by D'Arcy Power, M.B. Oxon, F.R.C.S. Eng., surgeon to the Victoria Hospital for Children.
- D'Arcy Power
- Date:
- [1895]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: An address on the medical history of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Pepys : Read before the Abernethian Society on March 6th, 1895 / by D'Arcy Power, M.B. Oxon, F.R.C.S. Eng., surgeon to the Victoria Hospital for Children. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![his left than in his right eye. He attributed his defective vision at first to cold and to a variety of causes, but he learnt the true cause after a time, and though he sus¬ pected it on July 31st, 1663, it is not until June 8th, 1664, that he states ‘ my eyes did ake ready to drop out” after a long eveDiDg of writing notes in shorthand. He applied to Ed. Cocker on Oct. 5th, 1664, to ascertain “how I shall do to get some glasse or other to help my eyes by candle-light, and he tells me that he will bring me the helps he hath within a day or two and show me what to do.” Cocker, the alleged au'hor of the arithmetic and engraver of letters [1631-1675], whose memory we still commemorate when we say, “According to Cocker,” appears to have suggested the use of a pair of green spectacles, which Pepys employed for many years. Increasing age, however, added presbyopia to his hypermetropia, and his sight at last became so bad that after trying many expedients he found himself unable to write up his Diary, which he concludes on May 31st, 1669, with the words : 41 And thus ends all that I doubt I shall ever be able to do with my own eyes in the keeping of my Journal, I being not able to do it any longer, having done now so long as to undo my eyes almost every time that I take a pen in my hand.” The presbyopia no doubt increased, but he was able to transact the ordinary business of a useful life until May 26th, 1703, when he died. The minor illnesses of Pepys are neither numerous nor interesting. He suffered from severe attacks of indigestion, usually caused by surfeits, and he records that after a visit to Epsom in July, 1663, which was then a fashionable watering- place, he suffered from a pile the result of the purging pro¬ duced by a course of the waters, coupled with the additional riding exercise in which be indulged. He was in fear for some time lest the pile should prove a rupture, thereby dis¬ playing his lack of even the rudiments of surgical know¬ ledge. He was extremely liable to catarrhal affections, for he was constantly catching cold ; on one occasion it was from having his hair cut, on another from leaving off his periwig, and even from sitting without his hat at dinner. The cold was usually cured by simple remedies and left no after¬ effects, but on one or two occasions he had attacks of ton¬ sillitis. He says (June 12tb, 1663) that he was “mightily troubled all night and next morning with the palate of my mouth being down from some cold I took to-day sitting sweating in the playhouse and the wind blowing through the windows upon my bead ” He suffered, too, from boils, for on](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30799193_0010.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
