JBP <=> Syphilis. A History Lesson.

[markyscott]

Gets your attention right? Interestingly enough, there really is a connection. The story starts with the birth of Carl Peter Thunberg in 1743...

 

[markyscott]

Thunberg was born and grew up in Jönköping, Sweden. At the age of 18, he entered the Swedish Uppsala University where he was taught by the famous Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus. Thunberg graduated in 1767 after only 6 years of studying. To deepen his knowledge in botany, medicine and natural history, he was encouraged by Linnaeus in 1770 to travel to Paris and Amsterdam where he met another disciple of Linnaeus, Nicolaas Burman.


Carl Peter Thunberg

 

[0soyoung]

clap, clap, clap

 

[markyscott]

Burman took an immediate liking to Thunberg and convinced him to travel to the West or East Indies to collect specimens for the Dutch botanical collection at Leiden. Thunberg accepted and decided that Japan should be his destination. Problem was, Japan was not open to Swedish naturalists at the time. But it was open to Dutch merchants....

 

[markyscott]

You see, Japan was under sakoku at the time. What was sakoku? Sakoku was a policy enacted by the Tokugawa shogunate (the last feudal Japanese military government) under Tokugawa Iemitsu through several policies and edicts from 1633 to 1639 and had remained effective until 1853 when the Perry Expedition forcibly opened Japan to Western trade. It translates literally as “country in chains" or "lock up of country". It was the foreign policy of Japan under which no foreigner or Japanese could enter or leave the country on penalty of death. A special case had been made for Dutch merchants, but even they were under very tight control.

Amazingly. None of this deterred Thunberg, who set about remaking himself into a Dutch merchant.

S

 

[markyscott]

So Thunberg, the Swedish physician and naturalist, headed to the Dutch colony in South Africa by entering the Dutch East India Company as a surgeon on board of the Schoonzicht. Thunberg debarked in December 1771. In March 1772, he reached Cape Town in South Africa where he set up shop for three years studying the Dutch language. During his stay he made three expeditions into the interior, where he collected a significant number of specimens of both flora and fauna. He also graduated at Uppsala as Doctor of Medicine in absentia, while he was at the Cape in 1772.

 

[markyscott]

In June 1775, Thunberg headed for Japan, arriving at the Dejima in August. What was the Dejima? So glad you asked.

The Dejima was a small, artificial island constructed in Nagasaki Bay. It was 120m long by 75m wide. It was built to keep the foreigners off the mainland and was connected to the city by a single small bridge. This is where all the Dutch merchants lived at the time.

 

[markyscott]

However, just like the Dutch merchants, Thunberg was hardly allowed to leave the Dejima. These severe restrictions to the freedom to move had been imposed by the Japanese shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1639. You see the Portuguese, who had been the first to arrive in Japan in 1543, had garnered the shogun's rage through their missionary attempts. So the only locals who were allowed regular contact with the Dutch were the interpreters of Nagasaki and the relevant authorities of the city. Poor Carl, who only wanted to collect some dang plants, was caught in the middle. But like any good merchan, Carl started to cut deals - he traded his knowledge of western medicine to plants samples from the mainland.

 

[markyscott]

And here’s where the syphilis part comes in. One of the tidbits of western medicine that Thunberg traded to the Japanese in exchange for plants was the cure for syphilis.


This was huge. You see, unbeknownst to Carl, syhilis had reached almost epidemic proportions in Japan. And everyone who got it, died a long and painful death. Rich and poor alike.

s

 

[markyscott]

All of a sudden, Carl was a rock star in Japan. Due to his growing scientific reputation, Thunberg was given the opportunity in 1776 to accompany the Dutch ambassador M. Feith to the shogun's court in Edo, today's Tokyo. During that journey, he collected a great number of specimen of plants and animals and likewise to talk to Japanese locals in the villages he traveled through. It is in this time that Thunberg wrote two of his scientific masterpieces, the Flora Japonica (1784) and the Fauna Japonica.

 

[markyscott]

It was on this journey he provided the first modern botanical description of the black pine, introducing it to the western world. The species epithet for Japanese Black Pine, thunbergii, is in honor of Carl Peter Thunberg in whose great botanical works we are all indebted.

Incidentally, Carl never visited China, but described quite a number of Chinese native plants that had been introduced to Japan under cultivation. Carl mistakenly believed them to be native to Japan and tagged them”Japonica” in his book. That’s why so many Chinese species are labeled “Japonica” in their species epithet.

S

 

[markyscott]

There you have it. The fascinating link between Japanese Black Pine and venereal disease. Bet you didn‘t think those two phrases could ever be used together in the same sentence. But here we are. And here are a few of Carl’s figures, just for fun.



s

 

[misfit11]

Great stuff! I don't know if I'd ever put those two things together. I love JBP but try to steer clear of Syphilis.

 

[thumblessprimate1]

Thank you, professah!

 

[bonsaichile]

Fun read. Thanks @markyscott !

 

[milehigh_7]

Great stuff!!!

 

[0soyoung]

Fascinating tale, but you didn't mention what the cure was, @markyscott. Obviously it wasn't penicillin.



Should I just say,

Spoiler: spoiler alert

mercury water

or should I remain mum about it?

 

[cheap_walmart_art]

Interesting stuff!

 

[hemmy]

Mind blown. . . Between Marky and Oso, I just did an hour deep dive into the theoretical origins of syphillis. Best thread of 2019!

Also check out Dan Carlin’s history podcasts and “Supernova in the East”

 

[just.wing.it]

Very nice. Well done.

Something tells me that they don't teach this in most curricula nowadays.