Fracastor described the patient as well as the disease: “The victims were sad and broken with pale faces.”
“They had chancres on their private parts; these chancres were changeable; when cured at one point they reappeared at another; they always broke out again.”
“Pustules with crusts were raised on the skin; in some these commence on the scalp first; this was the usual case; in a few they appeared elsewhere. At first these were small, afterwards increasing in size, appearing like unto the milk crust in children. In some these pustules were small and dry—in others large and humid. Sometimes they were scarlet, sometimes white, sometimes hard and pink. These pustules opened at the end of some days, pouring out an incredible quantity of stinking and nasty liquid, once opened they became true phagedenic ulcers, which not only consumed the flesh but even the bone.”
“Those whose upper regions were attacked had malignant fluxions, that eat away the palate, the trachea, the throat and the tonsils. Some patients lost their lips, others their noses, others their eyes, others their private parts.”
“Large gummy tumors appeared in many and disfigured the limbs. These growths were often the size of an egg or a French roll of bread. When opened these tumors discharged a whitish mucilaginous liquid. They were principally noted on the arms and legs; while ulcerating sometimes they grew callous, at other times remaining as tumors until death.”
“As if this were not sufficient, terrible pains oftimes attacked the limbs; these generally came when the pustules appeared. These pains were long abiding and well nigh insupportable, aching most at night, not only affecting the articulation, hut also the bones and nerves of the limbs. Sometimes the patient had pustules without pains, at other times pains without pustules; but the great majority had pustules and pains.”
“The patients were plunged into a condition of languor. They became thin, weak, without appetite, sleeping not, always sad and in a sullen humor, the face and the limbs swollen, with a slight fever at times. Some suffered with pains in the head, pains of long duration, which did not recede before any remedies.”
“Although the greater majority of mortals have taken this disease by contagion, it is no less certain that a great number of others contracted it from infection. It is impossible to believe, in fact, that in such a short time the contagion that marches so slowly by itself and which is communicated with such difficulty, should overrun such a number of countries, after having been (as it is claimed), imported by a single fleet of Spanish ships. For it is well known that its existence was determined in Spain, France, Italy and Germany and all through Scythia at the same period of time. Without doubt the malady originated spontaneously, like the petechial fever, or it had always existed.”
“A barber, my friend, has a very old manuscript, containing directions for the treatment of the affection. This has for its title: ‘Medicine for the thick scabs, with pains in the joints.’ The barber remembered the remedy laid down in this work, and at the very commencement of the new malady thought he recognized the contagion by the name of the thick scabs. But physicians having examined this remedy found it too violent, inasmuch as it was composed of quicksilver and sulphur. He would have been happier had he not consulted the doctors; he would have grown wealthy by incalculable gains.”
We see from this that the syphilis of the fifteenth century did not present precisely the same symptoms as the variety of to day. Formerly secondary and tertiary accidents supervened much more rapidly, besides being very violent in their manifestations. Besides the disease was exceedingly malignant often causing, death in a short time, which fact led many authors of that epoch to consider the symptoms due to a pestilence brought about by general causes.[40] Nicholas Massa wrote in fact, that: “The patient has pains in the head, arms, and especially the legs, which are always intensified at night. The buboes in the two groins are salutary when they suppurate. We observe a chafed and scaly condition of the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. Ulcers of a bad appearance are frequently noted on the penis; these ulcers are hard and callous and very slow in healing. In exploring the throat we often discover a relaxed condition of the uvula and the presence of sordid ulcers, which rarely suppurate. With all this eruptive process we note certain hard tumors that adhere to the skin and bone and bear the name of gummata. These tumors may ulcerate and produce osseous caries.”[41]