History
The exact origin of syphilis is unknown. Of two primary hypotheses, one proposes syphilis was carried to Europe by the returning crewmen from Christopher Columbus's voyage to the Americas, the other proposes syphilis existed in Europe previously, but went unrecognized. These are referred to as the "Columbian" and "pre-Columbian" hypotheses, respectively. The Columbian hypothesis is best supported by the available evidence. The first written records of an outbreak of syphilis in Europe occurred in 1494/1495 in Naples, Italy, during a French invasion. Due to its being spread by returning French troops, it was initially known as the "French disease." In 1530, the name "syphilis" was first used by the Italian physician and poet Girolamo Fracastoro as the title of his Latin poem in dactylic hexameter describing the ravages of the disease in Italy. It was also known historically as the "Great Pox".
The causative organism, Treponema pallidum, was first identified by Fritz Schaudinn and Erich Hoffmann in 1905. The first effective treatment (Salvarsan) was developed in 1910 by Paul Ehrlich, which was followed by trials of penicillin and confirmation of its effectiveness in 1943. Before the advent of effective treatment, mercury and isolation were commonly used, with treatments often worse than the disease. Many famous historical figures, including Franz Schubert, Arthur Schopenhauer and Édouard Manet are believed to have had the disease.
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“The principle that human nature, in its psychological aspects, is nothing more than a product of history and given social relations removes all barriers to coercion and manipulation by the powerful.”
—Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)
“History has neither the venerableness of antiquity, nor the freshness of the modern. It does as if it would go to the beginning of things, which natural history might with reason assume to do; but consider the Universal History, and then tell us,—when did burdock and plantain sprout first?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In the history of the United States, there is no continuity at all. You can cut through it anywhere and nothing on this side of the cut has anything to do with anything on the other side.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)