Syphilis and the Shepherd of Atlantis

Natural History, Oct, 2000 by Stephen Jay Gould

Syphilis sive morbus Gallicus includes three parts, each with its own form and purpose. Part 1 discusses origins and causes, while parts 2 and 3 narrate myths in closely parallel structure, devised to illustrate the two most popular (though, in retrospect, not particularly effective) cures. Fracastoro begins by defending his choice of morbus Gallicus as a name for the disease:

   To Naples first it came
   From France, and justly took
   from France his name
   Companion from the war....

He then considers the theory of New World transmission on Spanish ships and admits the tragic irony, if true:

   If then by Traffick thence this
   plague was brought
   How dearly dearly was that
   Traffick bought!

But Spanish shipping cannot be blamed, Fracastoro holds, because the disease appeared too quickly and in too many places, including areas that never received products from the New World, to validate a single point of origin:

   To whom all Indian Traffick
   is unknown
   Nor could th'infection from the
   Western Clime
   Seize distant nations at the
   self same time.

Spain must therefore be absolved:

   Nor can th'infection first be
   charged on Spain
   That sought new worlds beyond
   the Western main.
   Since from Pyrene's foot, to Italy
   It shed its bane on France,
   while Spain was free.

   From whence 'tis plain this Pest
   must be assignd
   To some more pow'rful cause and
   hard to find.

The remainder of part 1 presents Fracastoro's general view of nature as complex and puzzling but intelligible--thereby exemplifying Renaissance humanism, an attitude that tried to break through the strictures of Scholastic logical analysis to recover the presumed wisdom of classical times ("renaissance" means "rebirth") but that did not yet include the belief in the primacy of empirical documentation that would characterize the rise of modern science more than a century later. Fracastoro tells us that we must not view syphilis as divine retribution for human malfeasance (a popular theory at the time)--a plague that must be corrected but cannot, as a departure from nature's usual course, be comprehended.

Rather, syphilis originated by natural causes that can, in principle, be understood. But nature is far more complex and unattuned to human sensibilities than we had been willing to admit, and explanation will not come easily--for nature works in strange ways and at scales far from our easy perception. For example, Fracastoro argues, syphilis probably had no simple point of origin followed by later spread (thus absolving Spain once again). Its particles of contagion (whatever they may be) must be carried by air but may remain latent for centuries before breaking out. Thus, the plague of any moment may emerge for reasons set long before. Moreover, certain potent causes--planetary conjunctions, for example, that may send poisonous emanations to Earth--remain far from our potential observation or understanding. In any case, and on a note of hope, Fracastoro depicts plagues as comprehensible phenomena of complex nature. And just as they ravage us with sudden and unanticipated fury, the fostering conditions will change in time, and our distress shall lift: