Presidential Practice of Dermatology

Abstract

LyndonJohnson, the36thPresidentof theUnitedStates, hadmanycareers en route to the White House (schoolteacher, local administrator, naval officer, and elected public official), but his brief stint as an amateur dermatologist is generally overlooked. Johnson’s unorthodox approach to treating severe facial acne was first tried while he was an undergraduateatSouthwestTexasStateTeachers’College.Aclassmatewho witnessed the episode is quoted verbatim in the first volume of Robert Caro’s monumental biography of Johnson: One student, a Bohemian farm boy, was generally immune from practical jokes because hewas so “slow” and gullible—some students believed hemight be slightly retarded—as tobe toodefenseless a target. This student had a severe case of acne, and one evening, talking with Johnson, ... he said girls wouldn’t go out with him because of it. Lyndon said to him that the curewas to get fresh cowmanure and put it on your face. He said, “Oh, go on,” and Lyndon said, “Didn’t you ever turn over a cow pile and see how white the grass was underneath, how the manure bleached the grass?”... Lyndon tells him to take a towel and cut eyeholes in it and wrap it around his face. He...came into our room and asked how itwas, and Lyndon said, “You don’t have enough on to do any good.”Hemadehimputmore on. In themorning, he smelled so bad, you couldn’t go near him.