Christopher Columbus first saw the New World, probably one of the Bahama Islands, on October 12, 1492.\u00a0 Between October and January he visited Cuba and Haiti.\u00a0 In the latter month, he set sail for Europe, landing at Palos, the port from which he had set out, on March 15, 1493.\u00a0 He brought with him ten natives from the West Indies, of whom one died soon after landing, and a crew of forty-four men.\u00a0 The crew were disbanded and some are said to have joined the troops of Gonzalo de Cordoba who marched with Charles VIII to Naples.\u00a0 Columbus travelled with his nine natives to Seville, left three of them there, and took the remaining six on to Barcelona.\u00a0 At the end of April the six Indians, all males, were shown naked to the court; they are described as brown and comely, more like Asiatics than Africans.\u00a0 There is no mention of any disease.<\/p>\n Twenty-five years later, in 1518, a book, printed in Venice, first mentioned the theory that a “Spanish disease” had been imported from America (or the West Indies) by seamen in the 1492-3 expedition led by Columbus.\u00a0 This theory was supported and popularized in 1526 by Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdes, who had been a page at the Spanish court when Columbus showed his Indians.\u00a0 Oviedo made several voyages to the West Indies and reported that he had found evidence of the new disease among the natives.\u00a0 In 1539 Rodrigo Ruiz Diaz de Isla, a physician, published\u00a0 description of “the West Indian disease” or “bubas” , and claimed to have treated at least one, if not more, of Columbus’s crew at Barcelona.\u00a0 Diaz de Isla practiced in several of the larger Spanish ports, so he may, after a lapse of over forty years, have wrriten Barcelona in mistake for Palos or Lisbon.<\/p>\n The first theory therefore maintains that syphilis was introduced into Europe from the West Indies by ship in 1493.\u00a0 Many medical historians support this opinion.\u00a0 The evidence in favor is that a new disease of great virulence undoubtedly did appear in Europe at about the time of Columbus’s return.\u00a0 Another point, sometimes cited, is that one of the earliest and more popular treatments was by holy wood or guaiacum, a resin obtained from two evergreen trees which are indigenous to South America and the West Indies.\u00a0 However, there is no evidence whatsoever of disease in the imported Indians or among the forty-four seamen who returned with Columbus; the homeward voyage seems to have been remarkably healthy.<\/p>\n The second theory holds that syphilis originated in Africa and was introduced into Spain and Portugal by the importation of slaves.\u00a0 There is an African disease, yaws, which is bacteriologically indistinguishable from syphilis but which, unlike the modern infection, is chiefly transmitted by non-venereal contact.\u00a0 It is particularly common among children who play together naked.\u00a0 For this reason yaws is seen only in hot climates where it appears as a horrible skin eruption.\u00a0 The causative organism is the same as that of syphilis; if introduced into cold climates, where people are customarily fully clothed, yaws will settle down into ordinary syphilis, carried mainly by venereal contact.\u00a0 In fact, yaws and syphilis are probably different manifestations of one and the same disease.<\/p>\n Culled from:\u00a0Disease and History<\/a><\/p>\n By the way, Yaws is HORRIFYING, as this old\u00a0Malady of the Month<\/a>\u00a0will attest!<\/p>\n Oh, and so is Syphilis as this old\u00a0Malady of the Month<\/a>\u00a0will equally attest!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/8ef0af2c-7746-fc5c-a390-94db9e864b5c.jpg\")
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\nSyphilis: The Great Pox<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nYaws: An Equally Great Pox<\/em><\/p>\nCrime Scene Du Jour!<\/h3>\n