Stevenson, in his Travels in South America, i, 405, remarks : "With what certainty the origin of syphilis has been traced to America, I know not; but the wild tribes of Arauco (Chile), Archidona and the Napo (Peru), those of Darien (New Granada), and several others, as well as those who live in small settlements among the Spaniards, are totally unacquainted with it; and, although I have been particularly inquisitive on this head, I never could hear of a solitary instance of the disease, except in large towns and cities, and then it was limited to a certain class (prostitutes), where it was likely to be most prevalent."
I now come to a recent writer on subjects connected with the New World, who has again brought the subject of the existence of syphilis in America to our notice, and that it existed there at an ancient date.
In vol. i, p. 181, Hist, des Nations Civilisees du Mexique, par l'Abbe B. de Bourbourg, in detailing the legend of the deification of Nana-huatl, he says : " He is there with the others, but he is sick, he suffers from a terrible and incurable disease; there is nothing now to attach him to life, the joys of which he has drained ... he throws himself into the flames, and is instantly burnt to ashes." In a note it is stated, " that the disease above mentioned was the American syphilis, which is somewhat different from that of Europe. Original and numerous documents, in the languages of those countries, have proved to us convincingly the existence of this disease in America before its discovery by Columbus."
"Upon so important a subject, I should have thought that reference would have been made to these " original and numerous documents"; for without them, that the sickness of Nanahuatl was the " American syphilis", may be very much questioned.
At p. 182 of the same work, the abbe says: "Strange aberration of the human mind ! That which was most revolting concerning this deity, the most revolting of matter, to be clothed so mysteriously; the symbols of grandeur and majesty, and the words which express the most infectious corruption of the human body, has even to this day, among a multitude of Indian nations, an analogous state, as that of the most elevated power." This is a most extraordinary paragraph. Had it had to do with phallic worship, we might have understood the affair. However, in a note, a far more extraordinary position of things appears; it is as follows : " In all the Spanish translations of the history of Nanahuatl, he is continually called by the name of ' Buboso'," which the abbe translates "syphilitic". This struck me as rather strange, and I have investigated what I believe to be the true meaning of the word buboso in this case; namely, that it merely comes from the Spanish word buba, a pustule, and that buboso has been applied to the syphilitic swellings in the glands known as buboes, but that this bubo of the aboriginal Mexican Indian was an ordinary pustule or tumour, and not syphilis. The abbe proceeds, having once persuaded himself that this buboso means syphilitic, " The word puz, which signifies the foul and corrupted matter of this disease, in the tzendal and in the otzile, becomes a verb to signify the sacrifice, and especially that of human victims; it means, also, to enchant, to perform miracles, or prodigies. Puz-naivcal, means enchanter, the great and marvellous man, etc. Galel-ahpop is a princely title, and galel-ya is a syphilitic. Xogahuah means princess, and tantel yoghuah literally means, she made herself a princess, as well as ' exit ex ea syphilis'. Tepeu means great syphilis, or he who has a great deal of it; gawal tepegal, divine, or the greatest majesty." After this rather hyper-philological dissertation-to me of very little value-the abbe proceeds : " Or is it, that the Spanish ecclesiastics in their catechism, being ignorant of the origin of these words, employed them to express the most sacred things of our religion, in the Quichee and Cakchiquel ?" It would take a volume to write all on such matters, so multiplied and varied are they. We have to apologise to our readers for this strange note; but the circumstances have appeared so curious to us, that we have thought it our duty to lay it before the eyes of the learned.
In a paper by Professor Owen to the British Association, on the Andamans or Mincopies, long isolated from any other people, Dr. Jebb said : " I never met with any one of them affected with gonorrhoea, syphilis, intermittent fever, itch, piles, small-pox, goitre, or other
In 1831, I became acquainted with Mr. Beale, a surgeon, who subsequently wrote the History of the Sperm Whale. At p. 375 of that work, he says, speaking of Tahiti : "But if Mars had afflicted them so sorely, Venus herself had been less kind than her consort; their intercourse with foreigners had left their diseases, that were depopulating the islands; men, women, and even little children in arms, were suffering from this worst of Pandora's gifts, for the cure or alleviation of which they possessed neither knowledge nor means." At the period I speak of, I had long communications with him on the subject of the depopulation of many of the islands in the South Seas; when he gave me a copy of his pamphlet on the matter, in which he positively states that the diseases had been communicated to the islanders by the whalers and sealers ; and he proposed to the philanthropists of his day to send to the said islands a number of young-medical men to do their best to cure or arrest these dreadful scourges; that these were the proper sort of men to improve the natives; that they (the surgeons) would explore the islands, make collections of natural history, to be sent home to our museums, and in this way repay in some measure the expense incurred. Mr. Beale's appeal was in vain. Missionaries only have been sent from England and the United States to the " heathen", but no medical men to cure the loathsome diseases contracted from the white man.
As a medical curiosity in connection with this subject, I translate from the Mercurio Pemano, No. 323, 6th February, 1794, published in Lima. It is headed, " Publication of a Receipt by Royal Order, with a Note by the Senor Oidor." "In publishing this receipt, we should give our most cordial and reverent gratitude to the King of Spain our Lord, who is not unmindful, amongst his heavy troubles, of having a care for the health of his happy and so tenderly beloved vassals. The receipt sent will be dear to us, seeing that the various experiments made are most satisfactory, so that the Sovereign has ordered it to be published in his remote dominions.-Royal Okdek.
"Excellent Seilor,-I remit to Y. E,, by order of the King, the accompanying receipt, used by the Honorary Commissary of War, Don Rafael Ramos, Comptroller of the Military Hospital of New Orleans; its advantages are well known for the cure of rheumatism, venereal, and scorbutics, so that the faculty of surgeons under Y. E.'s care may pay every attention to its use. God protect Y. E.-Palace, 22 July, 1793. Alange-to the Lord Viceroy of Peru.
"Instruction how to make the tincture:-Take 11 pints of good white wine, and macerate for three days ; zarzaparrilla 3 oz.; holy wood 3 oz.; zarzafras 3 oz. ; senna 4 oz.; harmodatil 3 oz.; tartar emetic 4 gr.; hearts of pino 1 oz."
" In the commencement, the tincture was only used in venereal cases, but it is now extended to scorbutic rheumatisms, humoral fluxion of the eyes, linfaticos oserosos in any portion of the body, to clean the kidneys, urethra, and bladder, or the impurities therein, taking away sand and even small calculi, useful in gout. Then venereal ulcers or gonorrhoea, exostosis (probably nodes), and other symptoms in the texture of the solid portions that have suffered, or have suffered alteration or disunion, the cure is not so rapid."
When I went to South America in 1825, a French quack medicine called pantamagogo was the rage ; it was taken for every mortal disease, venereal included. I examined it, and it appeared to be a highly drastic tincture. With the arrival of European medical men, pantamagogo and some other quack rubbish were abandoned; still, many American and French patent medicines are patronised.
On Local and Imported Diseases in America.-Mexico.- Torquemada says in lib. vii., c. 29, to one of the deities were attributed diseases, as " small pox, swellings, abscesses, itch, and bad eyes." As to small pox, there may possibly have been an indigenous variety; but that which has much assisted to thin off the red men, say from a hundred millions to ten or twelve millions, was the European. Las Casas calculated that, in the first forty years after the discovery of America, twelve to fifteen millions of the natives had been destroyed by the Spaniards, i.e., by war and its results, and disease. As to the introduction of small-pox into the New World, it is on record that as early as 1520 Narvaez, who joined Cortez with his fleet, had with him a negro who had the disease It spread rapidly in that part of Mexico, when numberless Indians fell victims. Maxi-ixa, the chief of Tlaseala, took it and died, as did also Cuitlahua, the successor of Montezuma. Prescott observes that the small-pox at that time " was sweeping over the land like fire over the prairies-the natives perished in heaps, and that the small-pox was not known before the arrival of the Spaniards." As early as 1515 this disease had begun to thin off the natives of the West Indies.
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W.M. Bollaert, 1864
