Syphilis did not come from America

The Europeans had wheat, the Americans had corn.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
16 July 2022 Saturday 21:06
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Syphilis did not come from America

The Europeans had wheat, the Americans had corn. Rice, bananas, horses, oranges and lemons or pigs traveled to the New World from 1492. On the way back, the Spanish or Portuguese ships brought potatoes, chocolate, tomatoes, turkeys, tobacco and, especially, gold and silver.

But in that constant transatlantic exchange established after the discovery of Christopher Columbus there was more. The colonizers brought smallpox, flu, measles, chickenpox, bubonic plague... diseases that wreaked havoc on the native populations.

Until now it was believed, especially from the investigations of the historian Alfred W. Crosby explained in the book The Columbian Exchange (published in 1972), that the Americans paid us with the same currency: the Europeans would have acquired syphilis, an infection that spreads It is usually transmitted by sexual contact.

Recent studies, however, indicate that this venereal disease, caused by the spirochete bacterium Treponema pallidum, was already present in the Old Continent long before Columbus took La Niña, La Pinta and Santa María to set sail for Hispaniola.

Historian Marylynn Salmon of Smith College has analyzed documents and artwork from the medieval period for evidence of syphilis and says there is evidence to suggest the disease was already in Britain in the 6th century, she explains in an article published in The Conversation magazine.

“In a graveyard in West Sussex, archaeologists discovered the skeleton of a young man with extensive damage to his skull, collarbones, arms and legs, a typical combination of syphilis. He died in the sixth century, ”writes the researcher. The cases do not end here.

Salmon says that in Sankt Pölten (Austria) there is a cemetery with the tomb of a 6-year-old boy “with deformed teeth compatible with a diagnosis of endemic treponematosis, when the bacterium is transmitted from mother to child during pregnancy or childbirth. In Anatolia, in western Turkey, the skeleton of an adolescent revealed not only the same misshapen incisors, but also damage to the entire skeleton. “The large number of affected bones in this case points to syphilis. The victim died in the 13th century, a couple of hundred years before Columbus set sail,” he adds.

The expert acknowledges that the number of cases "is not large", but that they do not stop appearing. And part of the evidence appears in the remains of people who lived more than 2,000 years ago. "The damaged bones and teeth seem to have evidence of pre-Columbian syphilis, but it's possible they point to another form of the disease," she says.

Treponema pallidum appears in various strains. The subspecies that causes syphilis is the deadliest. But there are two others that cause less serious illnesses, although painful and unsightly: bejel (also known as endemic syphilis and that appears on the skin and other tissues) and yaws (the oldest of all treponematoses). Although these are usually not sexually transmitted.

"Documentary and artistic evidence can help solve the problem," says Marylynn Salmon. Of all the pathogens known to mankind, only the treponemes produce such divergent results depending on climate and culture, an important clue to find evidence in the manuscripts.

The theory of this historian is that medieval elites suffered more severely from treponematosis than peasants. “Their wealthy lifestyle would have protected them from the childhood infections that the lower classes contracted in their crowded and unsanitary homes. But those diseases would have had the benefit of triggering some future immunity in the peasantry,” she says.

If members of the upper classes reached sexual maturity without contracting milder ailments while growing up, they were more likely to catch the disease for the first time during intercourse. "A sore on the genitals contains a massive dose of bacteria compared to the small doses found on clothing," she explains.

In addition to the risk of dying young, elites could pass congenital syphilis to their children, often fatal to the next generation. "Elites and their children were dying in such high numbers that some noble families had trouble maintaining their bloodlines, a point that had been noted long ago but with no potential connection to syphilis," says Salmon.

One of the royals who, according to the researcher, probably died from this disease was King Edward IV of England (1442-83). One of his advisers wrote that he died of an ailment difficult to cure even in a person of lesser status, a cryptic comment not previously understood by historians.

“But his statement fits perfectly with the difference between venereal and endemic syphilis, evidence suggesting that both diseases existed in 15th-century England. King's symptoms and his reputation for sexual promiscuity help confirm my diagnosis,” he notes.

Syphilis can, on the other hand, cause what is known as a "saddle nose," in which spirochetes invade the patient's appendix, causing it to collapse in a distinctive manner. Medieval artists as early as the 12th century depicted this deformity in their work.

"I believe they were intended to show venereal and non-endemic diseases because they use the 'saddle nose' in depictions of sinful figures, including men who tortured Christ or killed babies on King Herod's orders," concludes Marylynn Salmon. .