Course:History 344 Nasty Families/Diseases/Syphilis
Syphilis is a disease caused by Treponema pallidum which is contracted through sexual or accidental contact, or by infection from the mother to the child in utero.[1] Mothers that give birth while they have syphilis results in a 20% more likely chance of a premature pregnancy.[2] This means that not only does the pregnancy have increased chances of having serious complications, the child also stands a chance of contracting syphilis should they live. Once syphilis has made it inside the body it is likely to attack any kind of tissue, including bone. Syphilis can slowly eat away at the bones, making them porous and extremely brittle.[3] Measures prescribed against syphilis were incredibly ineffective. For example, ingestion of mercury and its application as a salve was prescribed as a preventative measure, which would not have done anything to halt, much less cure the disease.[4]
In the early seventeenth century, England and the rest of Europe was swept with syphilis in an epidemic form.[5] It has been noted that “the mortality was considerable and the morbidity enormous in every class of society.”[6] Syphilis did not distinguish between class, race, or sex, and was capable of killing entire families.
The origins of syphilis is still debated among historians, archaeologists, and scientists alike. However, the consensus is syphilis, although possibly present in Europe before 1492, was rampant in the Americas before Europeans ever came to the New World.[7] Once the New World sailers returned home, they spread syphilis to new carriers, which increased the prevalence of the disease in both England and mainland Europe. It is likely that exploration of the New World would have provided opportunities for men to contract syphilis, as syphilis was a more common disease in the Americas than in England, and then return home with it. [BN: I think more recent research has modified this account of the origins of the disease]
- ↑ Oxford English Dictionary Online, 2nd ed., s.v. "syphilis."
- ↑ G. Donders et al., "The Association of Gonorrhoea and Syphilis With Premature Birth and Low Birthweight," Genitourin Medical Journal 69, no. 2 (1993): 98, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ (accessed February 6, 2012).
- ↑ John E. Lobdell and Douglas Owsley, "The Origin of Syphilis," The Journal of Sex Research 10, no. 1 (1974): 77, http://www.jstor.org/ (accessed February 6, 2012).
- ↑ P. W. M. Copeman and W. S. C. Copeman, "Dermatology in Tudor and Early Stuart England," British Journal of Dermatology 82 (1970): 189, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/ (accessed February 6, 2012).
- ↑ Copeman and Copeman, 188.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Lobdell and Owsley, 78.