Welcome to brain stuff from how stuff works, Hey, brain stuff luring vogel bomb here. William Shakespeare mentioned diseases often in his plays, probably because he was literally surrounded by them, I mean, aren't we all. But during his London based lifetime in the fifteen and sixteen hundreds, such notorious illnesses as the bubonic plague, typhus, and malaria ravaged citizens, all made more potent and deadly by rodents, over crowding and
virtually non existent sanitation systems. Also striking fear into the hearts of just about everyone were small pox and the Great pox, known today as syphilis. The two conditions actually present similar rashes, despite being different in terms of type of infection and transmission. Smallpox is a virus spread by breathing. Syphilis is bacterial and almost always sexually transmitted. The hallmark of both diseases was a body riddled with pustules, also
known as pox. It felt the people to distinguish between these horrors. Thus syphilis became known as the Great pox, not because the pock marks of syphilis were larger than those of smallpox, but rather because, in the fifteen to seventeenth centuries, it was the greater fear. Syphilis was likely introduced to Europe when Christopher Columbus, a little that guy and his crew brought it back from the New World in fourteen nine three. Although there are other theories, the
timing is definitely suspect. The pandemic began in Europe pretty much right after they returned, killing many. Even those who were lucky enough to survive were typically covered in scars and went blind. Of course, the Europeans, for their part, left behind smallpox and other diseases in the New World, sometimes intentionally, which how long with slavery, would wipe out millions of Native Americans. Fortunately, smallpox has now been eradicated
by vaccine, and we have penicillin to treat syphilis. Shakespeare's writings indicate an interest in syphilis, such as in the play tim And of Athens, where he references the use of inhaled vaporized mercury salts, a common treatment for the disease at the time. In fact, one of his best known quotes was originally a reference to syphilis. A plague on both your houses from Romeo and Juliet was first a pox on both your houses. Thanks to multiple references
of syphilis, and his works. Historians have wondered whether Shakespeare himself was infected. Known for being a little bit of a hustler, his signature during the last years of his life indicates that he experienced a tremor, which is a common side effect of mercury poisoning, which, as we said, was the treatment of choice for syphilis. Of course, any number of physical ailments can cause a tremor, so it's
unlikely that this posthumous diagnosis will ever be confirmed. Today's episode was written by Alia Hoyt and produced by Tyler Clang. You can find brain stuff, phone cases, and other brain stuff in our shop at tea Public dot com, slash brain stuff, and of course, for more on this and lots of other POxy topics, visit our home planet, how Stuff Works dot com.