An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2022 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

15961 entries, 13944 authors and 1935 subjects. Updated: March 22, 2024

DIAZ DE ISLA, Ruy

1 entries
  • 2367

Tractado cótra el mal serpentino.

Seville: D. de Robertis, 1539.

Diaz de Isla, a Barcelonese surgeon, wrote of a disease “previously unknown, unseen and undescribed”, which appeared in Barcelona in 1493 and which was obviously syphilis. This is probably the earliest reference to the West Indian origin of syphilis (the writer believed that the disease originated in Haiti) and the book is the chief source of the opinions of those who believe in the American origin of syphilis. Text reproduced with German translation in Janus, 1901, 6, 653-55; 1902, 7, 31-40. Extensively discussed in No. 2430.

Digital facsimile from Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.



Subjects: COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Haiti, INFECTIOUS DISEASE › SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES › Syphilis