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Syphilis and its treatment: brief histories
After Venus, mercury: syphilis treatment in the UK before Salvarsan
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  1. Adriane Gelpi1,2,
  2. Joseph D Tucker1,3
  1. 1Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
  2. 2Social Medicine Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
  3. 3International Diagnostics Centre, London, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Joseph D Tucker, International Diagnostics Centre, Keppel Street, WCE1, London, UK; joseph.tucker{at}post.harvard.edu

https://doi.org/10.1136/sextrans-2014-051778

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    At the beginning of the twentieth century, the treatment of syphilis varied substantially in the UK. Two of the commonly used treatments—mercury and bismuth—were often used for long durations, which prompted the public health warning, ‘two minutes with Venus, two years with mercury’.1 Beyond this variation in treatment, venereology itself was a topic taught to generalists rather than specialists.2 Moral condemnation attached to those with syphilis, whose illness was often considered self-inflicted. Patients themselves, fearful of public scrutiny and stigma, often turned …

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