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  • Sex, Sin, and Science: A History of Syphilis in America
  • Marilyn E. Hegarty
John Parascandola . Sex, Sin, and Science: A History of Syphilis in America. Healing Society: Disease, Medicine, and History. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2008. xviv + 195 pp. Ill. $49.95 (978-0-275-99430-3).

Combining historical narrative with sociocultural analysis, John Parascandola has written an interesting and informative account of multiple discourses regarding sexually transmitted diseases. Sex, Sin, and Science begins with the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas and the subsequent emergence of a new disease in Europe. The contentious question of who gave what to whom soon followed. Parascandola situates this much-debated question in a broad framework. He points out that sexually transmitted diseases, in this case syphilis, are never just diseases; their interpretations vary across time and space and are influenced by social, cultural, and political issues and events.

In six chapters, the reader travels across time, from colonial America to the twentieth century, from syphilis to AIDS. Along the way the reader will find an [End Page 779] extensive account of medical attempts to cure or control venereal diseases, ranging from the arcane to the well-known discovery of penicillin in the 1940s. The journey also illuminates the ways links between certain persons and disease are constructed. Classified as "other," these persons are assigned responsibility for the spread of venereal diseases, thereby protecting the larger group from both contagion and the stain of sin and immorality. Inevitably, such practices complicate attempts to eradicate venereal diseases. Moreover, the linkage of particular bodies and disease lingers long after medicine and science develop a germ theory of disease.

Throughout history, prostitutes have ranked high on the list of contagious individuals. Interwoven with analysis of the relationships among war, venereal diseases, and prostitution is an account of the emergence and expansion of public and private institutions and agencies formed to combat the spread of syphilis and other venereal diseases. Covering the period from the Revolutionary War to the Vietnam War, Parascandola discusses the search for a "silver bullet" cure for syphilis. By the twentieth century, federal public health and social hygiene organizations and state commissions launched a war on venereal disease. They developed policies and programs, including a call for the elimination or regulation of prostitution and for (sex) education, always controversial issues. Prostitution, blamed for the spread of venereal diseases, was a significant concern during wartime. The U.S. government created agencies to keep the soldiers "fit to fight." They focused on the repression of prostitution and attempted to involve the citizenry in the effort. In this aspect of the war on venereal diseases, the double standard becomes apparent. Although the military claimed to support repression, in fact, they supported men's access to women in many ways. In other periods, however, syphilis and other venereal diseases were kept in the shadows, serious but morally unspeakable medical problems.

The persistence of a disease/sin dyad is evident in reactions to the discovery of penicillin. One official warned: "should the public assume that the availability of penicillin offers complete freedom to engage in licentiousness it is quite within the realm of possibility that the venereal disease rate will increase materially" (p. 134). And so it did, but not necessarily due to penicillin. The disease rate seemed to be cyclical, sometimes up and sometimes down. Nonetheless, the persistence of stereotypes and of notions of sin and immorality continue to complicate attempts to eradicate sexually transmitted diseases, all too evident, for example, in the early years of the AIDS epidemic.

As former chief of the history of medicine division of the National Library of Medicine, Public Health Service historian, and educator, John Parascandola brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to his account of syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases. Sex, Sin, and Syphilis is compelling, interesting, and informative. It is both scholarly and accessible to the general reader. And it is timely, in light of a current rise in the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases. [End Page 780]

Marilyn E. Hegarty
The Ohio State University
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