From Mercury to Miracle Drugs: Syphilis Therapy over the Centuries

Abstract

Shortly after Columbus had arrived in the New World, as the fifteenth century drew to a close, a terrible new disease which we now call syphilis appeared in Europe. A controversy developed over whether or not the disease had been imported to Europe from the Americas, beginning with Columbus and his crew, or had existed in Europe earlier, perhaps in a different form. The question of the origin of syphilis is still not firmly resolved today, as there is evidence both for and against the American origin theory. The venereal nature of syphilis was recognized relatively early.

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