This Blog is Downright Infectious....

This week we are talking about something that can be considered one of the longest lasting, most wide spread, devastating epidemics in history. What is it Emma? Please tell us!

Is it the Black Death (bubonic plague)? …NOPE

Smallpox? …NOPE

Cholera? … NOPE

Flu (Any kind, take your pick…) …STILL NO

Would you like a hint? Okay, I will give you one: This illness has also been referred to as “lues" (Lues venerea), “Cupid’s Disease”, The Great Pox, The Disease of Naples, French Pox, The French Disease (I’ll explain this last one later).

I could go on, but surely you have figured it out by now.

You are right my friends; today’s topic is SYPHILIS!

I would like to start today off with a bit of a warning. As I already stated, today we are talking the history of a sexually transmitted disease. If you are offended by really cool medical facts, some descriptive language and overall awesome historical info, consider yourself warned… feel free to exit the building using one of the emergency weakling doors. Many thanks.

This is another warning for everyone else. Guess what I don’t suggest you do?…GOOGLE IMAGE SEARCH “History of Syphilis”. I mean, WOWZA. I had an idea in my head what severe syphilis suffers looked like, from other readings that I have done for other things. Seeing it in many, many photographs is a whole other ballgame. It is brutal and it is devastating. However, in the effort to be completely transparent, it was incredibly interesting as well. It is miraculous what someone could survive, in a time when medical treatment usually hurt you worse than the illness itself. People were able to live with these debilitating mutilations to their face and body. I guess what I am saying is, the choice is up to you. To google or not to google, that is the question.

Maybe we should start by explaining why syphilis was referred to as The French Disease, or the French Pox. I know you are all running through French stereotypes in your heads right now, trying to decide which one inspired the name…well, stop it, that's just rude. In 1493-94 King Charles VIII of France invaded Italy to get back the kingdom of Naples from the Spanish. Apparently, the war was such a good time, that both sides suffered such high causalities from the Pox (the syphilis pox, not the smallpox) that they had to cancel the offensive.

Let’s just take a beat… They cancelled an entire invasion because of too much Syphilis. How much spare time did these soldiers have!? I mean, I highly doubt they were sitting around touching each other’s festering syphilis wounds (which is one way you could get the pox) which leads me to the premise that they were all getting it through sexual means. Perhaps, more busy work would have been beneficial.

After the army was disbanded the soldiers all traveled home to their countries of origin and spread the pox as they went, like a flower girl sprinkling petals at a wedding. Therefore, people began calling it the French disease because it was largely spread by the French soldiers.

Fun Fact: French medical writers of the time (and for awhile after) tried changing the name of the “French Pox” in their writings, to reflect something less derogatory towards the French. The were unsuccessful.

Now, to be fair, it was not known at the time that sex was what passed Syphilis from person to person. Often times, people who had syphilis didn’t even know they had it, so when the French army was humping their way through Europe it wasn’t a malicious act.

To better explain how people were not even aware they had a life-threatening disease, I will need to tell you the three stages of Syphilis.

1st Stage

- It enters the body through penetrating a mucus membrane (I am really doing my best to not comment on the irony of the word “penetrate” here.) Mucus membranes: mouth, nose, eyes, urethra, lady parts, man bits etc…

- It stays dormant in the body for three weeks.

- A small sore appears at the point of entry (those darn mucus membranes) but is usually painless and lasts about a month.

- Then, nothing happens for several weeks.

It is easy to see how people throughout history could easily overlook the first stage of this illness.

2nd Stage

- Remember that one little sore? Well, now you have many of them. They still are often painless.

- At the same time the person would get aches, fever, overall fatigue.

- It all disappears again for several weeks.

So, now our French soldier is thinking “Oh man, I don’t feel so good. I should get this looked at eventually. Never mind, it’s better. Good to go.”

3rd Stage (I find this the most fascinating stage!)

- This stage can appear YEARS after the second stage! Or, sometimes not at all.

- Only 1 in 3 people get the third stage.

- The lesions return with a vengeance, they appear all over the outside and inside of the body.

- The ulcers are foul smelling and so powerful that they can eat through bone.

You might want to put down any food or drink you might be enjoying along with this blog.

- The bacterium eats the body tissue and destroys suffers noses, lips and eyes, along with many other parts. It is so powerful that it can destroy skeletal structures.

This is a skull found from a victim of syphilis. Look at the deterioration around the cranial region (there is literally, a giant hole) and the jaw and nose regions.

Photo Source: : http://www.environmentandsociety.org/arcadia/question-origins-skeletal-evidence-history-venereal-syphilis

So, you get this horrible condition and it is before the invention of penicillin and other life saving drugs. What then? If you chose to gamble on the cures that might kill you before the Syphilis does, you have a long and painful road ahead of you. Let’s talk about some of these “cures”, shall we?

Early in the history of this illness, doctors refused to treat Syphilis. Generally, “quacks” or barber surgeons were who you would go to when you were suffering from this. It has been said that many more people died from the treatment before the disease would have killed them. Also, because the treatment was so awful, people often chose to take their chances with the illness itself. One of the first treatments for the great pox was Mercury salve.

Yes, you read that correctly MERCURY.

The patient was secluded in hot, stuffy room and rubbed roughly with mercury salve several times a day. They were told to sit very near to the fire between salve applications so they could sweat out the sickness. This treatment could continue everyday, for anywhere from 1 week to 1 month.

If mercury didn’t solve your problems then they could also use arsenic or vitriol. In case you needed a brief introduction to Vitriol (Sulphuric Acid) I stole this explanation from google:

“Sulfuric acid is a highly corrosive chemical that is potentially explosive in concentrated form. It can cause severe skin burns, can irritate the nose and throat and cause difficulties breathing if inhaled, can burn the eyes and possibly cause blindness, and can burn holes in the stomach if swallowed.”

Source: https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ACYBGNRuzmc0tvq9fXLi-um67vVXQ4zOzw%3A1573661246285&ei=PirMXZGDEY235gLj66zwBw&q=vitriol+acid&oq=vitriol+acid&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0j0i22i30l9.26615.27443..27599...0.2..0.130.553.0j5......0....1..gws-wiz.......0i71j0i131j0i67j0i273.gLxl13Z9neA&ved=0ahUKEwiRmtP8yOflAhWNm1kKHeM1C34Q4dUDCAs&uact=5

Oh ya, rub that all over me please….

Around 1520 the connections start being made that Syphilis is, what we know as an STI, (STD for the older folks in the crowd). So naturally, contracting Syphilis is now evidence of your sins and the horrifying treatments are penance for being so unholy. Basically, you deserve it.

This punishment for sinning, does not take into account the wives, husbands, and children who were given this truly awful disease by their partners (or parents) dalliances.

There were other, less wide spread treatment options such as guaiacum (holy wood). That was made into a potion and taken internally but these are not as well documented or as wide-spread as the mercury treatments.

By the 17th and 18th centuries, Mercury was taken internally in pill form and not rubbed on the body. By this time, doctors were also aware of the dangers of mercury but it was still believed, maybe correctly, that the benefits outweighed end results of the disease.

It wasn’t until the 1930’s that studies truly started for the treatment of Syphilis and by the 1940’s it was found that it could be cured by Penicillin (antibiotics).

For shits and giggles, here are a few notable historical people who most likely died of syphilis.

Friedrich Nietzche (A humanist philosopher) – died from Mercury poisoning from treatment or the disease itself.

Al Capone- He was one of the first to be treated with Penicillin for Syphilis in the 1940’s but it was to late, he died from complications of the disease.

Christopher Columbus – He is suspected to have brought the disease to the New World.

Abraham Lincoln – This is an interesting one. Abe was known to have some flings with hookers in his early life. He was seen taking small blue pills (mercury pills were blue) and apparently told his biographer that he had a round of syphilis. Although he died before any of the Syphilitic symptoms could truly affect him, his wife Mary had many of the signs of Syphilis during her later life when she went insane and eventually died. Also, his children had evidence of congenital Syphilis that may have caused their premature deaths. The illness would have been passed from Mary during their births.

It is even said that William Shakespeare and Vincent Van Gogh might have been suffers of Syphilis. I will let you to look up these stories on your own.

I will leave you this week with a few interesting pictures. I have not included that actual graphic photographs, you can find those yourself online if you are interested.

In closing, I would like to say that although I included some humor in this blog post, I am truly sympathetic to the suffers of this terrible disease throughout history. It would have been an agonizing way to live and eventually die and I do not take their suffering lightly.

Peruse the images…

Until next week,

~Em

A example of a 16th century false nose used by Syphilis suffers who had lost their nose.

Photo source: https://www.drlindseyfitzharris.com/2013/09/04/renaissance-rhinoplasty-the-16th-century-nose-job/

Syphilis Sufferer with severe pustule lesions. Pencil, white chalk and watercolour drawing by Christopher D’Alton, 1855.

Photo Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2014/11/old_medical_photographs_are_images_of_syphilis_and_tuberculosis_patients.html

SOURCES

Beck, Stephen V. “Syphilis: The Great Pox.” Plague, Pox & Pestilence: Disease in History. Ed. Kenneth F. Kiple. London: Orion Publishing Group, 1999. (110-116).

Gora, Gordon. “10 Historical Figures Who Might Have Had Syphilis.” Listverse, Listverse, 4 May 2019, listverse.com/2015/11/12/10-historical-figures-who-might-have-had-syphilis/.

Frith, John. “Syphilis – Its Early History and Treatment until Penicillin and the Debate on Its Origins.” JMVH Syphilis Its Early History and Treatment until Penicillin and the Debate on Its Origins Comments, jmvh.org/article/syphilis-its-early-history-and-treatment-until-penicillin-and-the-debate-on-its-origins/.