Phillips, Shawn M. (Author)
Medicina Historica
Volume: 8
Issue: 1
Pages: 1-10
Publication date: 2024
Language: English
This review essay tracks syphilis, and the medical community’s responses to the disease, from the Colonial Period through the availability of penicillin in the 20th century (1585 to 1945). The essay demonstrates physicians actively aided their patients to hide their syphilis diagnosis due to the severe stigma associated with the disease. References from prominent figures from the 18th to the 20th centuries reveal an apparent debate within the medical community that lamented prioritizing patient privacy over public health, especially for a virulent, disfiguring disease. By mining data sources representing specific locations and broad regions it is suggested that syphilis likely became endemic in the USA sometime between 1810 and 1830. At that point, based on historical references, it appears that syphilis was widespread enough to persist endemically in most communities. A systematic analysis of bioarchaeological sites (28 sites; N=6,611; interments 1600-1944) is conducted to examine the rates and distribution of tertiary syphilis across time and by type of site. Reports demonstrate that no case of the disease has been found from a family, community, or military skeletal collection whereas all institutional skeletal collections report cases of tertiary syphilis with rates ranging from 1 to 19%. This pattern suggests an unrecorded cultural system was in place that culled individuals with tertiary syphilis from mainstream society and placed them in institutions where they were cared for by strangers, perished, and buried in anonymity. This study shows how bioarchaeology can provide significant information on disease and cultural practices not available from other sources.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Cristiana Bastos;
(2022)
The Never-Ending Poxes of Syphilis, AIDS, and Measles
(/p/isis/citation/CBB599210149/)
Book
Gaudillière, Jean-Paul;
Löwy, Ilana;
(2001)
Heredity and Infection: The History of Disease Transmission
(/p/isis/citation/CBB000101679/)
Book
Toni Sirena;
(2021)
La Falcadina ovvero la sifilide degli innocenti
(/p/isis/citation/CBB908678831/)
Book
Davide Orsini;
(2023)
La lente distorta della società. Malattia, violazione dell'ordine sociale e stigma tra XIX e XXI secolo
(/p/isis/citation/CBB852803265/)
Book
Bulmus, Birsen;
(2012)
Plague, Quarantines, and Geopolitics in the Ottoman Empire
(/p/isis/citation/CBB001251697/)
Book
Dickerson, James L.;
(2006)
Yellow Fever: A Deadly Disease Poised to Kill Again
(/p/isis/citation/CBB000800195/)
Book
Goulet Denis;
(2020)
Brève histoire des épidémies au Québec: Du choléra à la COVID-19
(/p/isis/citation/CBB318570787/)
Book
Nelli-Elena Vanzan Marchini;
(2022)
Guardarsi da chi non si guarda. La Repubblica di Venezia e il controllo delle pandemie
(/p/isis/citation/CBB098126566/)
Book
Richard Andrew McKay;
(2017)
Patient Zero and the Making of the Aids Epidemic
(/p/isis/citation/CBB093085222/)
Article
García Ferrandis, Xavier;
(2013)
Epidemiological and Care Aspects of Tuberculosis in Valencia during the Spanish Civil War and the Immediate Postwar Period (1936-1941)
(/p/isis/citation/CBB001200191/)
Book
Crawshaw, Jane L. Stevens;
(2012)
Plague Hospitals: Public Health for the City in Early Modern Venice
(/p/isis/citation/CBB001200915/)
Book
Jacques Pépin;
(2021)
The Origins of AIDS
(/p/isis/citation/CBB084551418/)
Article
Samuel K. Jr. Cohn;
(2020)
The Dramaturgy of Epidemics
(/p/isis/citation/CBB448730401/)
Book
Jones, Greta;
Malcolm, Elizabeth;
(1999)
Medicine, disease, and the State in Ireland, 1650-1940
(/p/isis/citation/CBB000110599/)
Book
Shah, Nayan;
(2001)
Contagious Divides: Epidemics and Race in San Francisco's Chinatown
(/p/isis/citation/CBB000101127/)
Article
Tullo, Ellen;
(2010)
Plague of Icy Breath. Cholera and the Gateshead Community 1831--1832
(/p/isis/citation/CBB001220542/)
Book
Eugenia Tognotti;
(2006)
L'altra faccia di Venere. La sifilide dalla prima età moderna all'avvento dell'Aids (XV-XX sec.)
(/p/isis/citation/CBB198398423/)
Book
Guenter B. Risse;
(2015)
Driven by Fear: Epidemics and Isolation in San Francisco's House of Pestilence
(/p/isis/citation/CBB762832136/)
Book
Phillips, Howard;
(2012)
Epidemics: The Story of South Africa's Five Most Lethal Human Diseases
(/p/isis/citation/CBB001421023/)
Book
Fabio Montella;
(2022)
La spagnola. Storie e cronaca della pandemia influenzale del 1918
(/p/isis/citation/CBB745179403/)
Be the first to comment!