Faculdade de Medicina de São José do Rio Preto Programa de Pós-graduação em Ciências da Saúde

TL;DR: The objective of this research is to identify and to discuss the changes on the medical knowledge on the disease along that time, particularly regarding the treatment of the syphilis.

Abstract: Introduction: The current technical knowledge on the etiology, infection forms, clinical picture and treatment of the syphilis comprised more than four centuries to be built. The objective of this research is to identify and to discuss the changes on the medical knowledge on the disease along that time, particularly regarding the treatment. Material and Methods: Bibliographical research of historical nature was performed. Medical newspapers of the studied times were the main sources. The research was complemented with bibliographical indications found in the papers of these magazines and in dermato-syphilography textbooks. Results: Syphilis appeared in Europe in the end of the 15 century, spreading as a serious epidemic. The first explanations for its emergence were mystic and astrological. The doctors tried to treat the patients on the basis of hypocritical-galenic theories of the balance of the humors. Treatment with mercury started to be used in the 16 century and aimed at eliminating harmful humors. At the same time, the conceptual perception of a great venereal illness has appeared; all of the diseases of sexual transmission would be a single disease, and they would have the same cause. In the 18 century, the first tuneless voices appeared settling down highly controversial among ones that defended the uniqueness of the venereal diseases and the ones that believed they could have different pathologies. Both currents were based on experiments with inoculations to prove their positions. The controversy was only undone in the second quartile of the 19 century due to Ricord s work in France, whose experiments were also based on inoculations. In the beginning of the 20 century, syphilis agent and the