Who gave the world syphilis? : the Haitian myth / by Richard C. Holcomb ; with introduction by C.S. Butler.

  • Holcomb, R. C. (Richmond Cranston), 1874-1945
Date:
1937
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Who gave the world syphilis? : the Haitian myth / by Richard C. Holcomb ; with introduction by C.S. Butler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Part One THE HISTORIC MYTH There is an inveterate opinion that syphilis had its European origin in Haiti, an island of the West Indies, first called Espanola, and that it was imported with the return of Columbus from his first voyage. There is an abundance of evidence through contemporaneous books, edicts, and chronicles, that the disease under numerous names was widespread all over Europe before he returned from his second voyage in June 1496. Not Good Form to Dispute the Myth op the Haitian, or American Origin of Syphilis It is not good form to disagree with those who believe in the American origin of syphilis. Astruc believed de¬ voutly in this theory, and militantly rejected all other evidence, reviling with fervor those heretics who enter¬ tained the doctrine of its great European antiquity. But this attitude is no less true in these modern times, for Holies ton, referring to the work of Jeanselme (Histoire de Syphilis, Paris, 1931) thus sums up his attitude: “He [Jeanselme] has come to the conclusion that all documents concerning syphilis, with a date prior to 1493, are apo¬ cryphal, either because they are antedated by fraud or error, or because interpolated passages have been intro¬ duced.” If such is true it becomes a serious matter to entertain a view of its great European antiquity. Continuing, Rolleston says: “Professor Singer believed that the outbreak of the disease which occurred at the end of the fifteenth century, was not syphilis, but paratyphoid fever. The speaker thought that all the best people held the opposite view” (The italics are mine). Jeanselme (Fig. 4, Histoire de Syphilis, Paris, 1931) publishes a reproduction of the frontispiece of Ruiz de Isla’s first edition, an illustration reproduced as an exhibit by other writers to give weight to what it is assumed may be found in the text. It has seemed to suggest that Jean-