502 



SYNUSIANS SYPHILIS. 



meaning of the expression synthetic &nd analytic me- 

 thod ; the former is that process in science, which 

 begins with the principles, and from them deduces 

 a particular conclusion, as is strictly done in mathe- 

 matics ; yet mathematicians themselves give the 

 name of synthesis to that part of their science which 

 contains the proofs of the theorems already laid 

 down ; analysis they call that part which seeks to 

 form theorems. 



SYNUSIANS. See Apollinariang. 



SYPHAX, king of the Masssesylians in Africa, 

 allied himself with the Romans in the second Pu- 

 nic war, but, being repeatedly defeated by Masinissa, 

 was prevented from joining Scipio in Spain. But 

 this state of things was soon changed. Masinissa 

 was deprived of his crown by a usurper ; and Sy- 

 phax was thus enabled not only to return into his 

 dominions, but, deserting the alliance with the Ro- 

 mans, and joining the Carthaginians, to conquer the 

 kingdom of his rival. Syphax, to whom Hasdrubal 

 had given in marriage his daughter Sophonisba, 

 who had been previously betrothed to Masinissa, 

 declared in favour of Carthage, on the appearance 

 of Scipio and Masinissa with an army in Africa, and 

 raised a large body of troops in her cause, but was 

 defeated and made prisoner. Livy says that death 

 spared him the disgrace of being carried into Rome 

 in triumph by Scipio ; but Polybius, the friend of 

 Scipio, states that he formed a part of the trium- 

 phal procession of the conqueror. 



SYPHILIS (from the Greek 0x, feeble) ; the 

 name now most frequently used for the venereal 

 disease, which is thus called in a very fine poem, 

 written in Latin hexameters, by the Italian Fracas- 

 torio (first printed in Venice, 1530, 4to.) The 

 history of this disease is one of the most difficult 

 parts of the history of medicine. It is uncertain 

 whether that violent and truly epidemic disorder of 

 the skin, which appeared in the last ten years of 

 the fifteenth century, was really what we now call 

 syphilis, or not rather a variety of the leprosy, 

 which soon after entirely disappeared. Towards the 

 end of the fifteenth and at the beginning of the six- 

 teenth century, a disease, till then unknown, ap- 

 peared in Europe, and which, by its rapid extension, 

 its horrible consequences, its great contagiousness, 

 the inefficacy of all the remedies employed against it, 

 perplexed the physicians, and excited a general hor- 

 ror. Respecting its origin, nothing certain is 

 known. The physicians of that time were, generally 

 speaking, too ignorant to investigate the origin of 

 a disease which they were but rarely able to cure. 

 Until lately, it was pretty generally believed that 

 this malady was carried by the vessels of Columbus 

 from America to Europe ; but the most accurate 

 examination of this opinion shows its incorrectness. 

 The first author who expresses this opinion was a 

 physician of Nuremberg (Germany), of the name of 

 Leonhard Schmauss, in 1518: he founded his opi- 

 nion upon the fact that the Guaja wood, which had 

 been introduced from America in the meantime, 

 had become known as a good remedy for the disease; 

 for, said he, nature always provides an antidote in 

 the vicinity of a poison. The principal support 

 which his opinion received was from the testimony 

 of the son of Columbus, and his successor Oviedo ; 

 but the first speaks only of a disease like scald 

 head said to predominate in St Domingo ; and the 

 other, a tyrant, like most of the Spaniards in Ame- 

 rica at tha< period, delights in representing his na- 

 tion as the favourite people of God, and the Ame- 

 ricans as cursed. A careful inquiry shows only that 



the crew of Columbus brought a contagious disease 

 with them, which destroyed the greater part of tlieir 

 number, and communicated itself to those who had 

 intercourse with them. This is easily explained bj 

 the imperfect care taken of the health of such a 

 crew, and the uncommon hardships of such a voy- 

 age in those times. At all events, their complaint 

 was not the venereal disease, as this broke out al- 

 most at the same moment, in the summer of 1493, 

 in the south of France, in Lombardy, and in the 

 north of Germany. Now, the vessels of Columbus 

 did not arrive till April at Seville ; and the dis- 

 ease could not possibly have spread so far from this 

 place within two months. Others have sought for 

 the origin of this disease in the expulsion of the 

 Marranos (secret Jews) from Spain, between 1485 

 and 1493. Many thousands of these unhappy per- 

 sons died of the plague on their passage by sea to 

 Italy, Greece, &c. Thousands of others suffered 

 by the leprosy ; and, without doubt, they carried 

 misery and sickness with them wherever they went. 

 But that this particular form of disease existed 

 among them cannot be proved ; and, moreover, 

 though Germany was not visited by these emigrants, 

 the syphilis showed itself simultaneously, in 1493, 

 in Halle, Brunswick, Mecklenburg, &c. As to the 

 opinion that the venereal disease had always ex- 

 isted in some form, it only amounts to a play upon 

 words, as a mere diseased state of the genitals is far 

 from amounting to syphilis, especially if we con- 

 sider the horrid consequences which that disease 

 produced at the time referred to. The most pro- 

 bable conclusion is, that the venereal disease was 

 produced by an epidemic tendency existing at that 

 time, which gave this new form to the leprosy then 

 so widely spread. The ancient writers, for many 

 years, described syphilis more as a terrible disease 

 of the skin and bones in general than as a mere af- 

 fection of particular parts ; more as a plague thaii 

 as a disorder of particular individuals. A new form 

 of disease could be developed the more readily, as 

 the political relations of that time brought the na- 

 tions very much into connexion with each other : 

 Spaniards, French, Germans, traversed Italy, and 

 all these, together with the Italians, spread through 

 Germany. The disease brought by the sailors from 

 America, akin to scurvy, may also have contributed 

 its part. It is certain that the disease was then 

 far more terrible than now. It made the patient 

 an object of horror to his friends, and almost in- 

 evitably reduced him to despair, as no physician was 

 able to aid him, and the remedies used were almost 

 as shocking as the disease. Since contagion, at that 

 period, took place much easier than now, and 

 houses of ill fame, which contributed greatly to 

 spread the disease, were found every where, the 

 disorder had by no means the same character of 

 disgrace connected with it as at present. On the 

 contrary, Ulrich von Hutten, who suffered from 

 it for years, and at length recovered his health 

 by the use of guaiacum, and the strength of his 

 constitution, always enjoyed public esteem, and 

 even dedicated his work on the disease to the first 

 spiritual prince of Germany, without indecorum or 

 offence. Like other diseases, it gradually dimin- 

 ished in virulence, particularly after Paracelsus had 

 found in mercury, and Swediauer in acids, the most 

 effective remedies against it ; and great suffering 

 does not arise from it at present except in conse- 

 quence of neglect. Yet it is still a formidable dis- 

 ease, as it injures more or less the general health, 

 and lays the foundation for other diseases of a very 



