John Taylor (oculist)

"Chevalier" John Taylor (1703-1772) was the first in a long line of British eye surgeons. While there is some evidence that he showed promise as an eye surgeon early in his career, it became evident that his major talent was that of self-promotion.

Dubbing himself "Chevalier" and "Ophthalmiater Royal," Taylor became the self-proclaimed personal eye surgeon to King George II, the Pope and number of European royal families. He was as famous for his womanizing as for his surgical skills. Prior to performing each surgical procedure, he would deliver a long, self-promoting speech delivered in an unusual oratorial style. (John Barrell, London Review of Books, 2004)

He was a coucher, or cataract surgeon, who performed removal of cataracts by breaking them up into pieces. He has been accused by some for accelerating the process by which composer Georg Handel became blind. Others believe that Johann Sebastian Bach died of complications due to his surgery. (Trevor-Roper, Documents of Ophthalmology, 1989)

He traveled throughout Europe in a coach painted with images of eyes. His arrival in a town would be publicised several days in advance to draw the largest crowd and he claimed to be able to cure misaligned eyes with his surgical skills. His trick was to make a small incision in the conjunctiva of the eye and cover the other eye. He would then instruct the patient to leave the eye covered for seven days, during which interval he would contrive to leave town and be as far away as possible, when the eye covering was removed.

Writer Samuel Johnson uses Taylor's life and career as an example of "how far impudence may carry ignorance."

He died in obscurity in 1772, after spending the last years of his life completely blind.