Word: fracastoro
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...with leprosy and other skin troubles, was given no special recognition. In 1493 a great plague of syphilis spread out of Naples, apparently carried there by Spanish troopers. Up to that time the disease had no specific name, was thereafter referred to as the Great Pox. In 1530 Girolamo Fracastoro, an Italian, produced a Latin poem entitled Syphilis sive Morbus Gallicus. Its hero, a shepherd named Syphilus was smitten with the Great Pox. Thus did this ancient disease finally get a literary name...
| 1 |