RECENT ADVANCES IN OUR KNOW- 

 LEDGE OF SYPHILIS 



By EDWARD HALFORD ROSS, M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P. 



Of The John Howard McFadden Researches at the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine 



The origin of the name of the disease called syphilis is still a 

 matter of dispute, and the genesis of the affection is unknown. 

 I am informed by Mr. E. Bennet, Fellow of Hertford College, 

 Oxford, that there is no definite mention of the disease in the 

 classics : and this is the reason, probably, for the belief that 

 syphilis did not begin until the Christian era had well advanced. 

 Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, does not mention it — even 

 the Aphorisms contain no admonitions which certainly apply to 

 venereal diseases ; the heroes of the Iliad and ALneid were either 

 blameless or fortunate ; and neither Xenophon, Tacitus, nor 

 even Caesar himself give it a definite place in history. In 

 Priapeia et in Diversorum Lusus, which contains the lewd stories 

 of the Greek and Latin authors, including those of Ovid, syphilis 

 is not described. But it has been suggested that the Biblical 

 prophecy "The sins of the fathers shall be visited upon the children 

 unto the third and fourth generation " refers to the disease ; yet, if 

 this is the case, the statement is inaccurate, for, as is well known, 

 syphilis is transmitted from parents to children for one genera- 

 tion only. The religion of the ancient dynasties of Egypt 

 seemed to centre round the worship of generation, as many of 

 the monuments on the banks of the Nile show ; yet venereal 

 disease is not mentioned in the papyri nor in the inscriptions 

 at Karnac, Thebes, Memphis, or Philae. But Dr. Armand 

 Ruffer, C.M.G., and Prof. Elliot Smith have recently examined a 

 number of well-preserved mummies from the tombs of the 

 kings, and the former has informed me that in some instances 

 the bones showed changes which resemble those that are known 

 to us now as being due to syphilis. It is commonly believed, 

 however, that this affection, which is the source of an enormous 

 premature mortality, produces great and lasting disability, is the 

 frequent cause of idiocy, imbecility, and insanity, a predisposing 

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