Eyes, voice, nose, toes, fingers, feet,
hands, one after the other are slowly deformed and rot away,
until at the end of ten, fifteen, twenty years, it may be, the
wretched leper, afflicted in every sense himself, and hateful to
the sight, smell, hearing, and touch of others, dies, despised
and the most abject of men."
Syphilis.--Heretofore the best evidence has seemed to prove that
syphilis had its origin in 1494, during the siege of Naples by
Charles VIII of France; but in later days many investigators,
prominent among them Buret, have stated that there is distinct
evidence of the existence of syphilis in prehistoric times. Buret
finds evidence of traces of syphilis among the Chinese five
thousand years ago, among the Egyptians at the time of the
Pharaohs, among the Hebrews and Hindoos in biblic times, and
among the Greeks and Romans after Christ. Some American writers
claim to have found evidences of syphilitic disease in the skulls
and other bones of the prehistoric Indian mounds, thus giving
further evidence to the advocates of the American origin of
syphilis. The Spaniards claimed that, returning from America in
1493, Columbus brought with him syphilis. Friend says: "One thing
is remarkable; the Spaniards, upon their first expedition to
America, brought home from thence this contagious disorder, and
soon after carried another affection thither, the small-pox, of
which the Indian Prince Montezuma died.
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