It was at the close of the fifteenth century that syphilis began to
spread through Europe. There are doubtful evidences of its existence
in both Europe and Asia long previously, but the theory is generally
accepted that it was brought from America by the sailors of the
earliest expeditions, while its rapid spread throughout the old world
in the decade from 1490 to 1500 has often been attributed to the
Spanish Jews in the first place, and also particularly to the siege
of Naples by the French in 1495. That large numbers of the French
soldiers then engaged contracted it in the course of that war is
undoubted, and as they were largely instrumental in spreading the
contagion the disease soon came to be known as the French disease, or
morbus Gallicus, though it has been questioned whether the adjective
was not originally a reference to the skin diseases known under the
name of “gale” or “itch.” The opinion that syphilis came from the west
is not universally adopted. It has been pointed out that Columbus only
reached Lisbon on March 6, 1493, on his return from his first voyage of
discovery; and there are several more or less authentic allusions to
the French disease before that date.
The rapidity with which this epidemic seized on all the countries of
Europe, and the virulence of its symptoms, alarmed all classes and
staggered the medical men of the day. Special hospitals were opened
and Parliamentary edicts were promulgated in some of the French and
German cities, ordering all persons contaminated to at once leave the
neighbourhoods. Mercury was one of the first remedies to suggest itself
to practitioners. It had been employed by the Arabs in the form of
ointments and fumigations for skin diseases, and quacks and alchemists
had long experimented with it in the hope of extracting a panacea from
it. Before Paracelsus had begun to administer it, Torrella, physician
to the Borgias, had prescribed mercurial lotions made from corrosive
sublimate, and Jean de Vigo, of Naples, had compounded his mercurial
plaster, and mercurial ointment, and had even given red precipitate in
pills.
At the time when syphilis was causing excitement through Europe
sarsaparilla and guaiacum were much praised as sudorifics, and
wonderful cures of syphilis by them were reported. The poet and
reformer Ulrich von Hutten wrote a book, De Morbo Gallico, in which he
related his own years of suffering from the disease, and his complete
cure by means of guaiacum in 30 days. “You may swallow these woods
up to the tomb,” said Paracelsus. He had not much more respect for
fumigations with cinnabar, which he regarded as a quack treatment by
which it was impossible to measure the dose of the mercury, though he
recognised that it cured sometimes. Red precipitate with theriacum
made into pills with cherry juice was his favourite remedy, and was
one of his laudanums. His Catholicon, or universal panacea, was a
preparation of gold and corrosive sublimate, which was largely used by
his followers under the name of Aurum Vitæ.
Corrosive sublimate was the great quack remedy for syphilis for more
than a century, and the so-called vegetable remedies, syrups and
decoctions of guaiacum, sarsaparilla, and sassafras, maintained their
reputation largely in consequence of the perchloride of mercury,
which was so often added to them. Aqua Phagadænica, 1 drachm of
corrosive sublimate in 1 pint of lime water, was a very noted lotion
for venereal ulcers. It began from a formula by Jean Fernel, a Paris
medical professor and Galenist (1497-1558), who dissolved 6 grains of
sublimate in 3 oz. of plaintain water. This was known as the Eau Divine
de Fernel. By the time when Moses Charas published his Pharmacopœia
this lotion had acquired the name by which it was so long known, and
was made from ½ oz. of sublimate in 3 lb. of lime water, and ½ lb. of
spirit of wine. It yielded a precipitate which varied in colour from
yellow to red.
A curious controversy prevailed for a long time among the chemical
and medical authorities in France in regard to a popular proprietary
remedy for syphilis known as Rob Boyveau-Laffecteur. It was sold as a
non-mercurial compound. It was first prepared or advertised in 1780
by a war office official named Laffecteur, whose position enabled
him to get it largely used in the army. Subsequently a Paris doctor
named Boyveau bought a share in the business, but in time the partners
separated, and both sold the Rob. Boyveau wrote a bulky volume on
the treatment of syphilis, and in that he strongly praised the Rob.
After the deaths of Laffecteur and Boyveau the business came into the
hands of a Dr. Giraudeau, of St. Gervais. This was about the year
1829. In 1780 the Academie de Medicine had examined this preparation,
and had apparently, though not formally, tolerated its sale. Their
chemist, Bucquet, had been instructed specially to examine the syrup
for sublimate. He reported that he could not find any, but he was by
no means sure that there was none there, for he stated that he had
himself added 2 grains to a bottle, and could not afterwards detect
its presence. Between that time and 1829 several chemists studied the
subject, and came to the conclusion that if corrosive sublimate had
been added to the syrup the vegetable extractive or the molasses with
which it was made so concealed it or decomposed it into calomel that
it could not be detected. In 1829 Giraudeau was prosecuted for selling
secret medicines, and for this offence was fined 600 francs. But the
interesting feature of this trial was the testimony of Pelletier,
Chevallier, and Orfila that the Rob contained no mercurial. They
reported that the formula given by the maker might be the correct one,
but that in that case the mixture would contain too small a quantity
of active substances to possess the energetic properties claimed for
it. Guaiacum and sarsaparilla were the principal ingredients, but there
were also lobelia, astragalus root, several other herbs, and a little
opium. The history of this discussion is related at some length in Dr.
Michelon’s “Histoire Pharmacotechnique et Pharmacologique du Mercure”
(1908).