ROCKY MOUNTAIN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 99 
parturienl woman, is related by Carver, p. 260. He 
describes a case where the surgeon, midwife, and 
friends despaired of the life of the patient, but who 
was promptly relieved by an Indian woman, who ''took 
a handkerchief and bound it tightly over the nose and 
mouth of the parturient woman. This immediately 
brought on a suffocation, and from the struggles that 
consequently ensued she was in a few seconds deliv- 
ered." The insensibility and relaxation produced by 
this treatment may have relaxed the muscles, and in 
some respects resemble a state of anaesthesia. 
The question of the origin of syphilis is one that, 
since shortly after the discovery of America, has 
caused much discussion in the medical profession."^ 
^ The writer who first asserted the American origin of syphilis was 
Leonhard Schmauss, a German physician, who wrote in 1518, twenty- 
five years after the disease appeared or was recognized as existing in 
Italy. He was followed by Ulrich Van Hulten, Oviedo, and others, 
who reiterated the same view, and in fifty years the statement was ac- 
cepted as a fact. These authors say that the sailors attached to the 
fleet of Columbus brought it on his first or second return home in 
1493 and 1496. Dr. Good says this is an error, for, on his reaching 
Seville, in the ensuing month of April, in order to join the Spanish 
army, syphilis then existed in Auvergne, Lombardy, and various 
parts of Italy, and in the course of the summer was in Saxony, Branden- 
burg, Brunswick, Mecklenburg, and especially Strasbiirg and at 
Cracow in Poland. Fracastorio, a physician of high repute for his 
skill in the treatment of this disease, and who resided at the spot 
where it was thought to have appeared in Spain, asserts that previous 
to the date here assigned to the disease it existed in Asia and Africa, as 
well as in some parts of Europe. Fulgori and others state that it 
was in upper Italy in 1492 and 1493 ; and at Massa, Cataneo, Pinetor, 
Burchardi, Capreoli, and at Rome in 1494. Therefore Oviedo's state- 
ment that it was carried to Italy by Gonzalvo is an error, as that gen- 
eral only arrived at Calabria May, 1495. Oviedo, although a writer 
of note, was charged and convicted of falsehoods, contradictions, and 
