Before Christopher Columbus sailed across the pond to the Americas , no European had ever discover apeanut or a llama . It has also beenhypothesizedthat no citizen of the Old World had ever contracted pox until the great explorer transported it back to Europe in his knickers . However , new grounds has shattered this long - standing hypothesis , suggesting that the disease may well have existed on the continent prior to 1492 .
The notion that Columbus get syphilis to Europe has always been free-base on conjecture rather than grounds . For instance , the earliest recorded outbreak of the disease occurred among the soldiers of Charles VIII of France ’s regular army in 1495 , suspiciously confining to Columbus ’s return from America . This make a number of multitude to jump to decision about where the affliction came from – conclusions which had , until now , never been disproved . In that sense , it was essentially a type of guilty until prove innocent .
A number ofattemptsto chase away the rumors and clear Columbus ’s name have been made in late time , yet none have been able-bodied to reassert a pillowcase of syphilis that pre - dated his paying back from America . However , a new report in theJournal of Biological and Clinical Anthropologynow appears to have done just that , by unearthing the corpse of a syphilis sick person who lived in the 14th hundred . Found in an ancient necropolis in St. Pölten , Austria , the specimen was found to exhibit a number of dental disfigurement that are typically due to congenital , or present from birth , syphilis .
Though the circumstance is most usually thought of as a sexually transmitted illness , it can also be passed from mother to baby during pregnancy , and at birth . When the former occurs , the biologic response of the foetus to the comportment of the pathogen do a wait to the development of tooth , resulting in a number of typical characteristics . These let in fang - like canines , barrel - shaped incisors called Hutchinson ’s incisor , and dome - mold molars . That all of these were keep an eye on in the Austrian skeleton , which was radiocarbon dated to support its antiquity , suggests that syphilis did in fact exist in primal Europe before Columbus ’s voyage to the New World .
These days , syphiliscan be treated with antibiotics if caught during its early phase , although in former times it would have been a deadly precondition . induce by theTreponema pallidumbacterium , its symptoms typically hap in three phase , the first of which involves the coming into court of highly infectious sore on the genitals . This is often follow by a inactive phase , during which the carrier stay infected but may not experience any symptom . finally , the disease enter its final stage , when a bit of nasty consequences may be experienced – including cecity , paralysis or last .
While the new finding represents the first ever pre - Columbian case of lues in Europe , scientists are yet to identify a pre - Columbian peanut or llama on the continent .
