Pepys's Eyes: A Modern Answer to an Old Conundrum?

Samuel Pepys was forced to abandon his renowned diary because of increasing pain and fear of impending blindness. In addition to having refraction errors, it has been suggested that he may have had ocular surface disease to account for his hitherto unexplained photophobia. This article uses new resources to re-examine Pepys’s symptoms working on the hypothesis that he suffered from dry eye disease. Applying the diagnostic algorithm provided by DEWS II corroborates the hypothesis and provides the basis of a unifying diagnosisof eye strain similar to digital eye strain that would explain all of his symptoms.