Venereal Disease and the Lewis and Clark Expedition

6. Aftermath

6 Aftermath Unlike a cold or the flu, syphilis is a gift that keeps on giving. The one-third of infected people who proceed on to develop tertiary (third-stage) syphilis carry a terrible burden. No one knows why two-thirds of syphilitics escape the curse of the tertiary manifestations ; it is only certain that they are the fortunate ones. Here are some of the unlucky one-third. The brilliant French writer Guy de Maupassant died a raving madman in 1893, a victim of cerebral tertiary syphilis.1 Winston Churchill’s father, Lord Randolph, a brilliant orator and politician, died in 1895, reduced to a shambling and incoherent wreck by tertiary syphilis, although other authorities say he was felled by small strokes or perhaps by a brain tumor. Scott Joplin, the King of Ragtime and one of America’s most talented composers, went the same way in 1917. England’s Henry VIII died of either syphilis or diabetes. Many famous people may have been victims of late syphilis: Friedrich Nietzsche, Heinrich Heine, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, and Al Capone. Karen Blixen, the authorof Out of Africa,was infected by her husband and, in spite of treatment with Salvarsan, went on to develop tabes dorsalis.2 Surgeon Warren Webster,whohadservedatFortLarned,Kansas,justbeforetheCivil War, described the inroads of syphilis upon the Kiowas and Arapahos : ‘‘Theyarevictims of the most desperate forms of constitutional syphilis, evidencing itself in lost noses,vacant palates and thevilest cutaneous affectations.’’3 In the spring of 1805, Lewis and Clark sent a delegation of Indian 85 86 Aftermath chiefs to Washington dc in order to impress them with American power. As the chiefs were preparing to return west in February 1807, the famed painter and student of natural history Charles Wilson Peale wrote to his friend Thomas Jefferson: ‘‘In conversation with a friend this morning as the Indians were leaving this City [Philadelphia ], he said they were sadly diseased; they had been with the women of bad fame in the lower part of the town and contracted the venerial [sic] disease. I have had no opportunity to enquire for the facts of this report, however I think it my duty to give you this notice, with the Idea that you will give orders for their cure before their departure.’’4 What about the members of the Corps of Discovery? As we have seen, the records suggest that nearlyall of them had syphilis and/or gonorrhea at some time during the journey.Three men with venerealdiseasewereidenti fiedbyname:GeorgeGibson,SilasGoodrich, and Hugh McNeal.The rest are a matter of informed conjecture. The histories of Lewis and Clark themselves, in the years after theirreturn,havebeenwelldocumentedandwillbediscussedlater. There have been several attempts to record what became of the enlisted and hired men (and one woman), those less-celebrated explorers who were so vital to the expedition’s success. The task of the detective of syphilis is made more difficult by two factors: poor recordsinyearsgonebyandthedifficultyinprecisediagnosisbefore theintroductionofreliablebloodtests.Almostanydiagnosisbefore 1910 is open to question, especially since syphilis can manifest itself in so many ways.The time of onset adds further confusion into the search: the first manifestations of tertiary syphilis maycome in two years – or in twenty.With these limitations in mind, let us proceed on, commencing with the three named men who had the pox.5 Pvt. George Gibson, hunter, horseman,violinist, and Indian sign interpreter, married after the expedition and died in St. Louis in 87 Aftermath 1809. The cause of death is unknown. Pvt. Silas Goodrich, a Massachusetts native, was the best fisherman of the Corps. At the end of the expedition Lewis made no special remarks about either Goodrich or Gibson. Goodrich reenlisted in the army around 1807. Clark noted his death as occurring shortlyafter 1825.The cause of death is unknown. Pvt.HughMcNeal,anativeof Pennsylvania,wasstillonthearmy muster rolls as of September 1811. Clark cites his death as occurring after 1825.The cause of his death is also unknown. It is immediately apparent that answers will be difficult to find, since there is not a single clue regarding tertiary syphilis in the few records that describe the three men positively identified as infected with syphilis. Let us consider the sergeants. Patrick Gass had served as a Ranger before joining the army in 1799. His carpentry skills benefited the expedition to the Pacific Ocean. He was discharged during the War of 1812 after losing an...