Gooddy

Indeed, we shall be considering ourselves as
well.
We shall then preserve, for everyone, the

highest qualities of social existence, at a time
when we sometimes appear to be crushed
beneath the weight of the so-called
"advances" which our brains have helped us
to design.

Though inevitably we face what Don
Francisco has described as "dying in life", the
neurologist might humbly add a fourth sen-
tence to his three:
And what you call dying is finally dying,
And what you call birth is beginning to die,
And what you call living is dying in life,
And whatyou call death is a lasting memorial.

Fanny Burney on Samuel Johnson's tics and
mannerisms

The following are some further contemporaneous
observations of the tics, mannerisms, postures, and
verbal repetitions displayed by Samuel Johnson which
support the notion'-3 that he was a victim of Gilles
de la Tourette syndrome (see J Neurol Neurosurg
Psychiatry 56:131 1).

Fanny (Frances) Burney (1752-1840) was daughter
of the musicologist Charles Burney. She enjoyed a
considerable reputation as a novelist and diarist, and
as portrayer of the domestic scene she was the fore-
runner of Jane Austen. She became second keeper of
the robes to Queen Charlotte in 1786 and married the
French emigre, General d'Arblay. She was a favoured
friend in Johnson's household.

Fanny Bumey (Mme D'Arblay)4:
He is, indeed, very ill-favoured! Yet he has naturally
a noble figure; tall, stout, grand and authoritative:
but he stoops horribly; his back is quite round: his
mouth is continually opening and shutting, as if he
were chewing something; he has a singular method
of twirling his fingers, and twisting his hands: his
vast body is in constant agitation, see-sawing back-
wards and forwards: his feet never a moment quiet;

and his whole great person looked often as if it were
going to roll itself, quite voluntarily, from his chair
to the floor.

And in her Early diaries': "The careless old ejacula-
tions have, in almost every case been modified or
effaced in the manuscripts of the diaries.... These
almost unmeaning expletives seem to have passed
unrebuked by Dr Johnson."

His repetitive utterances were often of a religious
nature (frequent recitations of the Lord's Prayer) but
coprolalia and scatological comments are very proba-
ble, although doubtless the loyalties and social niceties
of his friends inhibited their histories.

JMS PEARCE
304 Beverley Road,

Anlaby,
Hull HU10 7BG

1 McHenry L. Samuel Johnson's tics and gesticulations.
J7 Hist Med 1967;22: 152-68.

2 Murray TJ. Dr Samuel Johnson's movement disorder.
BMJ 1979;1:1610-4.

3 Pearce JMS. Doctor Samuel Johnson: "the Great
Convulsionary" a victim of Gilles de la Tourette's
syndrome. J R Soc Med 1994 (in press).

4 Burney F. Letters and diaries. London: G Bell. 1846.
5 Burney F. Early diary of F Burney. 1846;2:234. Cited by

George Birkbeck Hill. In: Johnsonian MisceUanies II
London: Constable and Co. 1897, reprinted 1966:
274-5.

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