Syphilis

Supposedly brought by Christopher Columbus from the Americas to Europe, the first outbreak of European syphilis was immediate in 1493-94 (Porter, Blood, 13).  The English called it "the French disease" (Arnold, 305), due to their dislike of the French.  Identification of a single celled parasite as the cause would not be made until 1905, but the diagnostic test was immediately developed in 1906 and by 1910 10,000 syphilitic patients had been cured by the drug Salvarsan (Porter, Blood, 103).



"The Quack Doctor's Studio" -- William Hogarth
The young rake is returning the useless pills the "doctor" has given him,
while the rake's prostitute covers her syphilitic sores by her mouth
(Wellcome Library)

"The patient is affected with an unusual pain in the genitals ... a spot, about the size and coulour of a measle, appears on some part of the glans ... A discharge appears from the urethra ... the aforesaid pustule becomes an ulcer ... Great pain during erections ... Pain in the head, arms and ankles .... Crusts and scabs appear on the skin ... The bones of the skull, shin-bones, and the arm-bones, are raised into hard tubers ... The bone becomes carious ["rotten"*] and putrescent ["the state of rotting"*] ... ulcers destroy the cartilege of the nose.  This they eat away; so that the bridge sinks in and the nose flattens ... At length, limb by limb perishing away, the lacerated body, a burden to earth, find ease only in the grave." - Thomas Sydenham, MD (Waller, 105).  Sydenham did not make the connection that syphilis also caused progressive dementia, with grandiose delusions, increasingly poor memory, slurred speech, facial tics, and unstable ambulation (Arnold, 242).




Natural and Political Observations ...
Made upon the Bills of Mortality
1662
(Wellcome Library)

Venereal disease was considered disgraceful.  When someone died of syphillis, often the searchers were bribed to record the cause of death as something else, and when John Graunt studied the Bills of Mortality he believed that only truly hated people were recorded as dying of it (Waller, 104-05).

One of every three patients admitted to St. Thomas's Hospital was for syphillis, and was hospitalized for 2-3 months for treatment with mercury.  Since no one understood the remission and recurrence of the disease, if a patient had been "cured" and then they returned to the hospital, they were whipped as punishment for returning to their evil ways (Mathias).  Wives often got the diseases from their husbands, who everyone thought had been cured (Waller, 104). 

Artificial nose
Wellcome Museum, London
(on loan from Hunterian Museum)
14 October 2012

However, there were "No Nose Clubs" formed in the 18th century for people who had lost their noses to syphyllis, accidents or war.  Often false noses were attached to glasses (Artificial nose display in "Superhuman" summer special exhibition, Wellcome Museum, London, viewed 14 October 2012) or made to adhere on their own (see left).

"The Martyrdom of Mercury," 1709
(Wellcome Library)

 John's lack of suggested treatments for venereal disease was unusual.  The diseases were rampant, and practitioners made a lot of money off "cures." (Madden, Cheap, 255-56).  "Dr" Rock, the quack, was famous for his "Incomparable Electuary" which he peddled as the "only venereal antidote" (Porter, Bodies, 15).  However, John does not mention any treatments in Primitive Physic's 14th edition (the one republished by The New Room in Bristol).  Physicians gave mercury orally, by injecting it into the nose and genitalia, and putting it in ointment to be applied to affected skin areas.  It had awful side effects, such as hyper-salivation, nausea, and diarrhea, but it did decrease symptoms (Waller, 105-06).  Mercury also caused loss of teeth (Porter, Bodies, 15).