‘One night with Venus, a lifetime with Mercury': Syphilis and ‘Syphilophobes’ in Early Modern England
Skeleton (c. 18th century) showing signs of advance syphilis.
Before the discovery of penicillin in
1928, syphilis was an incurable disease. Its symptoms were as terrifying
as they were unrelenting. Those who suffered from it long enough could
expect to develop unsightly skin ulcers, paralysis, gradual blindness,
dementia and ‘saddle nose‘, a grotesque deformity which occurs when the bridge of the nose caves into the face.
The seventeenth century was particularly
rife with syphilis. Because of its prevalence, both physicians and
surgeons treated syphilitic patients. Many treatments involved the use
of mercury, hence giving rise to the saying: ‘One night with Venus, a
lifetime with Mercury’. Mercury could be administered in the form of
calomel (mercury chloride), an ointment, a steam bath or pill.
Unfortunately, the side effects could be as painful and terrifying as
the disease itself. Many patients who underwent mercury treatments
suffered from extensive tooth loss, ulcerations and neurological damage.
In many cases, people died from significant mercury poisoning.
Given the nature of syphilis, as well as
its therapeutic alternative, it is not a surprise that many people
developed a phobia of the disease. ‘Syphilophobes’ feature frequently in
seventeenth-century medical literature. Richard Wiseman, a surgeon from
the period, writes: ‘These men will strangely imagine all the pains and
other Symptoms they have read of, or have heard other men talk of. Many
of these hypochondriack have come to [me]. They commonly went
away…unsatisified, nor could they quiet their minds till they found some
undertake that would comply with them’. [1]
When a surgeon or physician failed to
provide the desired diagnosis, syphilophobes often turned to quacks, who
frequently traded on the fears of their patients. Quacks promised quick
and immediate cures for the syphilophobes’ imaginary symptoms. Wiseman
naturally expressed his scepticism: these patients ‘were never the
better, the imagination in which the Disease was seated remaining still
uncured; whereupon presuming they were not in hands skilful enough, they
have gone to others and so forwards, till they have ruined both their
Bodies and Purses’. [2]
Today, syphilophobes are few and far
between thanks to the wonders of penicillin; however, there are people
who still suffer from a general fear of venereal diseases. Cypridophobia
is named after the Greek island, Cyprus, where legend has it the
Goddess, Venus, was born. Although it is rare, those who suffer from it
can at least rest assured that ‘one night with Venus’ does not lead to a
‘lifetime with Mercury’ in this day and age.
1. Richard Wiseman, Eight Chirurgicall Treatises (1676).2. Ibid.