Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 150

JUAN ALMENAR (fl. 1500) Libellus ad evitandum et expellendum morbum Gallicum. Bernardinum Venetum de Vitalibus 1502 [42] pp., 1 plate. 20.1 cm.

Almenar, a Spanish physician, wrote this very early treatise on syphilis only a few years after the disease had been widely recognized in Europe (see No. 128). Until the advent of antibiotics in the twentieth century, the principal treatment for the disease was mercury, well known today for its toxic effects. Almenar was aware of the relationship between excessive salivation and the oral administration of mercury, and he attempted to develop cures in which mercury was administered topically in a salve or ointment. Syphilis was ascribed to many different causes but Almenar was among those who recognized that it was a sexually transmitted disease.

See Related Record(s): 128

Cited references: Durling 175; Wellcome 226

Gift of John Martin, M.D.