An interesting new British Library study of her eyewear: Jane Austen's poor sight 'caused by arsenic' - BBC News
Well, the story has one highly questionable assumption in the middle, so whether Austen had poor eyesight because of arsenic is kind of a side issue.
The author, presumably quoting authority, says correction of +4 to +5 would have made it difficult for her to read and write. Mrs. B. has correction in the -5 range and simply wears glasses as she reads and writes her way through a workday and dissertation work. I had correction in the -7 range most of my life and had near normal acuity with glasses and contacts. (I now have about 20/25 vision uncorrected after PRK, but still use readers.) I’m sure many herein wear similar correction.
So while the rapid change indicates something, inferring that she essentially lost her sight is not correct.
That seems like a stretch to me. Jane Austen’s vision could have deteriorated from any number of reasons. The article doesn’t even state with a high degree of probability that the treatments for rheumatism at that time contained arsenic. Then to presume that they did, that she took them and that it caused cataracts (and possibly her death) seems to be grasping.
A strand of hair analyzed for heavy metals would be far more conclusive.
StG
Though I can understand the doubts some may have about the inferences made, it’s surely well-accepted that people of the era did poison themselves unknowingly by the use of arsenic.
Horrifying to think of all that’s been lost to our culture via that lack of knowledge of human physiology and the effects of arsenic upon the body.
BBC Newshour broadcast a story on the Austen theory, yesterday; it’s the same as in the OP link, but the audio would be interesting as the newsreaders made some comments. That doesn’t seem to be available yet, but I’ll check again later.
Yes, virtually blind is rather a leap from the evidence of the spectacles alone. And as a post above pointed out there could be many reasons for her deteriorating eyesight including diabetes (as I know, alas, only too well.)
I’d say it’s going to take a lot more evidence than this to overturn the scholarly consensus that she died of Addison’s Disease.
Ah, I see that the story is well debunked on CNN, it’s well worth checking out.