'For one pleasure, a thousand pains': The Treatment of Syphilis

At the beginning of the syphilis epidemic doctors had no idea how they should treat its victims. Measures such as diet, bleeding, purging and sweating were used while the pharmacopoeias were hurriedly consulted. External applications of mercury compounds had been used on a small scale by the ancient Greeks, and in the early Middle Ages were studied more thoroughly by Arabian physicians. In the. twelfth century applications of mercury (Unguentum Saracenicum) were advocated by Roger of Salerno for the treatment of some chronic skin diseases. Toxic symptoms such as salivation, which had been noted by the Arabs, were now regarded as beneficial, and “salivation cures” were initiated, chiefly for gouty conditions1. Mercury was prescribed for syphilis because Celsus had advised doctors confronted with a new disease to try remedies which had been found to be effective against similar conditions; syphilitic skin eruptions often resembled other skin diseases, so mercury was used by many of the early syphilologists, including Torella, Cataneus and de Vigo. Ointments of various strength were applied, sometimes just to the lesiolis but often more widely.