‘Spinal amaurosis’ (1841). On the early contribution of Edward Hocken to the concept of neuromyelitis optica

While the history of classical multiple sclerosis has been extensively studied, only little is known about the early history of neuromyelitis optica (Devic’s syndrome). Here we discuss a forgotten report by Edward Octavius Hocken (1820–1845) published in The Lancet in 1841. Hocken’s report is important from a historic point of view for two reasons. Firstly, apart from a French language report by Antoine Portal, no earlier case of spinal cord inflammation and amaurosis is known. Secondly and much more importantly, Hocken, who upon his untimely death at the age of just 25 years was honoured by his contemporaries as a “precocious talent” of “very early reputation”, in that article propagated the novel concept of ‘spinal amaurosis’, i.e. the concept of acute amaurosis and spinal cord disease being pathogenetically connected. Hocken’s ideas predate Devic and Gault’s seminal works on ‘neuromyelitis optica’ by more than 50 years.