Who Gave the World Syphilis? The Haitian Myth by Richard C. HolcombReview by: M. F. Ashley-MontaguIsis, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Feb., 1938), pp. 101-102Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/225810 .

Accessed: 08/05/2014 18:54

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

The University of Chicago Press and The History of Science Society are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,preserve and extend access to Isis.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 169.229.32.137 on Thu, 8 May 2014 18:54:43 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Reviews

Richard C. Holcomb.-Who gave the world syphilis? The Haitian mvth. With an Introduction by C. S. BUTIER. pp. I89. New York: Froben Press, I937, ($3.00).

The tradition that syphilis in Europe had its origin in Haiti, and that it was imported with the return of COLUMBUS in I493 from his first voyage, is the "myth" which Dr. HOLCOMB, after having carefully examined the evidence, is quietly determined to destroy. Where, in this connection, SUDHOFF was able to cast a doubt, HOLCOMB has completely succeeded in proving the case against the Haitian myth. Curiously enough, this feat has proven to be far from difficult; practically all that it entailed was an examination of the original sources ! Strange how first hand evidence has a wav of contraverting second hand authority!

The evidence for the Haitian origin of European syphilis rests chiefly upon the testimony of Ruiz DIAZ DE ISLA (I467 ?-1542?) as it may be read in hlis work Tractado contra el Mal Serpentino, Seville, I539. This work is generally assumed to have been written between I5IO and I520,

but HOLCOMB is able to prove that it was written considerably later. The fact that most of the writers on the subject of DE ISLA's testimony

have never actually seen either the manuscript of his book (National Library, Madrid, Codex P. 42), or the rare printed work, has led to the perpetuation of a number of serious errors which HOLCOMB, who has made a careful study of the first printed edition (the copy in the Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California), is able to correct.

According to DE ISLA'S own testimony he began to prepare his book about the year I528, i. e. 35 years following the return of COLJUMBUS

from his first voyage. This should give those who have indirectly relied upon DE ISLA'S oblique authority furiously to think. There are, however, more important facts than this which prove fairly conclusively that DE ISLA as an authority on the origin of European syphilis is quite untrustworthy. HOLCOMB makes out a very good case to show that DE ISLA?S original authority for the Haitian origin of syphilis in Europe was most probably GONZALO FERNANDEZ DE OVIEDO Y VALDEZ's Sumario de la Historia Natural y General de las Indias, Toledo, 1526, and the Historia Natural y General de las Indias, y Tierra Firme del Mar Oceano,

This content downloaded from 169.229.32.137 on Thu, 8 May 2014 18:54:43 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

102 ISIS, XXVIII, I

Seville, I535. DE ISLA, it would appear, merely guessed from these works that the serpentine disease must have come from the Indies.

There is a great deal of interesting information contained in HOLCOMB'S book, and all those who are in any way interested in the problem of the origin of syphilis in Europe will want to read it. It represents a really first class piece of scientific detection. Dr. HOLCOMB may perhaps be persuaded to try his hand at a few of the many other problems of a similar nature which litter the field of medical history.

New York University. M. F. ASHLEY-MONTAGU.

Wilhelm Fabry von Hilden.--Von der Fiirtrefflichkeit und Nutz der Anatomy. Edited by F. DE QUERVAIN and H. BLOESCH. xvi+ 203 pp., Leipzig: SAUERLANDER & Co., I936.

WILHELM FABRY, known to the learned world as FABRIcIus HILDANUS or GUILHELMUS FABRICIUS, was born at Hilden not far from Dusseldorf on June 25 1560 and died at Berne in Switzerland February I5 I634 (GARRISON incorrectly gives the date as I624). Generally spoken of as " The Father of German Surgery " FABRY has been described by KARL SUDHOFF as belonging " zu den gr6ssten Aerzten aller Zeiten," a view of the man in which all those who become acquainted with him must concur.

SUDHOFF has written an excellent account of FABRY (GUILIEMUS FABRICIUS HILDANUS, Munchener Medizinische Wochenschrift, No. 26, 28 June, 1910, 57, 1401-1403) in which, among other things, he pointed

out the existence of the manuscript from which the present volume has been printed. The editors of this volume do not seem to have been acquainted with SUDHOFF's article, or if they were, Professor DE QUERVAIN at least, the writer of the introduction, has not made the best use of it, for what has been omitted of the life and work of FABRY renders the account given of him of not more than the most cursory value. No one unacquailnted with the achievements of FABRY would be able, from a reading of this introduction, to gain the slightest idea of the true stature of the man. In view of the availability of SUDHOFF'S notice of FABRY it is here unnecessary to dwell upon his life and achievements. Short accounts of him are to be found in GARRISON and in CASTIGLIONI.

The last two decades of his busy and most fruitful life FABRY spent as Stadtarzt in the city of Berne, and it was here that he wrote and in I624 published his Kurze beschreibung der fiirtrefflichkeit (nutz) und nothwendigkeit der Anatomy. The present issue of this work represents the intended second and revised edition which FABRY had prepared during the last years of his life. At his death the manuscript together with his letters came into the possession of the Bern Stadtbibliothek,

This content downloaded from 169.229.32.137 on Thu, 8 May 2014 18:54:43 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions