Young Samuel Johnson Receives the Royal Touch, 1712

John Floyer, a former physician to Charles II, recommended that the young Samuel Johnson should receive the royal touch, which he received from Queen Anne on March 30th, 1712 at St James's Palace. Scrofula (scrophula or struma) is any of a variety of skin diseases; in particular, a form of tuberculosis, affecting the lymph nodes of the neck. It is informally or historically known as the King's Evil, referring to the belief that sufferers would be cured by the touch of the Monarch, a practice which continued in England until the early 18th century. In adults it is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis and in children by nontuberculous mycobacteria. The word comes from the Latin scrofula, meaning brood sow. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. Johnson was a devout Anglican and committed Tory. He is the subject of James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson. Johnson obtained some notice with his works London (1738) and The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749) - both of which are considered great poems - but his efforts in the 1750's are part of why he's considered a titan. This decade saw the creation of his Dictionary (1755), his Rambler essays (1750-52), his Idler essays (1758-60), and Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia (1759)

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1709 1712 1784 Biographer Blinking Boswell Critic Cure Cured Dictionary Editor Essayist Jame Lexicographer Lymph Moralist Nodes Scrofula Struma Tuberculosis

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