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”

15871 entries, 13811 authors and 1928 subjects. Updated: March 19, 2023

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