Historians from Cambridge University in the U.K. have concluded that during the Georgian Era at least 20% of Londoners had the sexually transmitted infection “the great pox”, better known as Syphilis, and that the sufferers normally contracted it before they reached their mid-thirties.

London was a hotspot because of the number of young adults that flocked there to seek their fortunes, or at least to secure a position in one of the leading Georgian houses or firms. People living in rural communities and smaller cities in England were up to twice as unlikely to get syphilis than a Londoner.

If that’s shocking, so too is the experts view that greater numbers of London’s population suffered from chlamydia and gonorrhea than from syphilis.

“One Night With Venus, A Lifetime With Mercury”

Physicians in the Georgian era trusted the centuries old treatment of mercury to fight the infection. Syphilis first arrived in Europe in the late 15th century and soon afterwards mercury was advocated as the best medicine. King Charles II probably died from mercury poisoning in 1685 while he was being treated for an STI.

In the 1700s, 2 London hospitals were established dedicated to the treatment of STI’s including syphilis. Other hospitals had “foul wards”. Syphilis sufferers faced 5 merciless weeks of purging via mercury applications in an ointment, exposure to mercury’s aroma, a liquid mercury, injections or by taking mercury tablets.

Treating Syphilis: Mercury’s Side Effects

Mercury’s toxic so the treatment could literally kill or cure. The mercury made the patient sweat and produce huge amounts of urine and saliva. The doctors believed that the great pox was being cleansed from the sufferer’s body. Bad breath, a sore mouth, swollen gums, hair loss, ulcers and organ failure were common side effects. Confusingly, some of the side effects were also the symptoms of syphilis.

The rich afforded themselves the luxury of private and discreet treatment but they couldn’t escape from the debilitating side effects.

People might have thought that they were rid of syphilis only to learn that it could lie dormant in the system for years before reappearing. The final devastating stage of syphilis that could occur up to 30 years after the first sign of the STI rendered sufferers blind, insane, disfigured or with a compromised nervous symptom, and ultimately dead.

Who Suffered From Syphilis The Most?

Young poor single men and older richer married men in search of distraction and gratification were the most likely to contract an STI, including the great pox or syphilis. Female teenagers and twentysomethings travelled to London to seek a better life but what often happened was that they fell into poverty or they were forced out of the job they were in because they were sexually assaulted and then flung onto the streets.

There were few opportunities for women; it truly was a man’s world. Women resorted to earning a living in the sex trade, the oldest profession in the world, and with an array of customers with a dubious sexual history, the probability of catching the highly infectious syphilis and other STI’s increased.

There wasn’t any effective protection or preventative option available so the infection ran rampant for the entire Georgian era.

Penicillin was discovered in 1928 and this was (is) an effective treatment for syphilis.

Further Reading:

https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/sites/default/files/paper_8.pdf

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