' When Dr Johnson felt, or fancied he felt, his fancy disordered, his constant recurrence was to the study of arithmetic,' said James Bos well. Arithmetic is perhaps a curious therapy for a man best known as a wit, a writer and a lexicographer. Did Boswell perceive something that literary critics have missed - Johnson's natural aptitude for mathematics?
Written by JOHN CRAIG , Office of Population, Census and Surveys
Presented by Geoff Watts Reader Timothy Bateson Producer GEOFF DEEHAN