Research suggests that one in every five Londoners in Georgia had syphilis

250 years ago, historians calculated that more than a fifth of Londoners had syphilis by their 35th birthday.

According to the same study, Londoners in Georgia were more than twice as likely to be treated for this disease as people living in a much smaller city in Chester (c.1775) and part of the region. Could be about 25 times higher than people in. Cheshire and northeast Wales.

With years of careful archive research Data analysis, Cambridge University Historian Professor Simon Shletter and Professor Kevin Siena of the University of Trent, Canada, published their disturbing findings in the journal Economic History Review.

They may not have surprised James Boswell, Samuel Johnson’s famous biographer who recorded up to 19 episodes of venereal diary in his diary between 1760 and 1786. During this period, Boswell left an outspoken record of his many sexual exploitations with London prostitutes. The pain caused by the onset of STI is similar. But today, this revelation helps change the understanding of the capital. Demographic structure, The culture when sexual customs and culture became the world’s largest metropolis.

“It’s not surprising that London’s sex culture differed from that of the English countryside at this time,” said Simon Schiller of Cambridge. It’s clear that they belonged to different leagues.”

The researchers believe that one-fifth represents a reliable minimum estimate, consistent with strictly conservative methodological assumptions at all stages. They also point out that far more Londoners than contracted syphilis during this period would have gonorrhea (or actually Chlamydia).

“At the time, the city had a surprisingly high STI rate,” Szreter says. “The majority of people living in London Young adult During this time, at some point in their life they became infected with STI. “

“Before preventive or effective treatment, there was a growing city here, with a continuous influx of young people, many of whom were financially struggling. Georgian London It was very vulnerable to epidemic STI infection rates of scale.”

Most people in Georgia England who experienced the first signs of discomfort, such as a rash and pain during urination, wanted to have only “applause” (gonorrhea) rather than “pox” (syphilis), and by self-attack started. Take the medicine in different tablets and potions. But for many, the symptoms worsened, leading to debilitating pain and fever that could not be ignored.

This care is free and has been provided by London’s largest hospital, at least two specialty hospitals, and many poor law clinics.

Szreter and Siena use a large amount of data, such as hospital records and test reports, to make many conservative estimates, such as bed occupancy and length of stay, to maximize the accuracy of the estimate. It was In the process, they excluded many patients to avoid counting false positives resulting from the notoriously tricky diagnosis of syphilis.

Of particular value to researchers, hospital records of consistently admitting 20-30% of patients in the “foul” ward reserved for residential treatment of smallpox during the late 1760s and 1780s were noted. I survived. But the researchers also used evidence from St. Bartholomew Hospital. Workplace clinics; There are also two subscription hospitals, Lock and Misericordia, which also cared for “foul” men and women.

Patients in the foul ward in London have been fighting the disease for over six months before seeking hospitalization. This helps the investigators, and it is very likely that the vast majority of patients counting in the record suffer from gonorrhea, soft diarrhea, or the serious and prolonged symptoms characteristic of secondary syphilis rather than chlamydia.

After careful adjustment, Szreter and Siena finally reached a conservative estimate of c.1775 with 2,807 inpatients annually receiving pox treatment at all centers. Dividing this number by the population of London, it fits within the catchment area of ​​the hospitals and workplaces surveyed, reaching an annual gross treatment rate per capita.

It then converts the London crude oil rate to an equivalent cumulative probability rate by comparing it to Chester’s existing data and adjusting for the demographic and social differences between the two cities. did. This suggests that about 8% of Chester’s population had been infected by the age of 35, while London’s figures were well above 20%.

The main factor could be a combination of increased migration of people through London during this period, combined with the financial unrest experienced by young adults aged 15 to 34. Young women were particularly well represented during their new arrivals in the city, and they were often placed in a position of domestic and economic dependence on mostly male employers.

A full 20% chance of being infected applies to individuals who continue to live in the capital between 15% and 35 years of age. This applies to most Londoners. As they did, they spent only part of the most vulnerable period of their lives at this high level of risk.

Historians stress that the STI was particularly prevalent among young people, especially in the poor. Unmarried womanIn situations where you are economically self-reliant using commercial sex or are prone to violence such as sexual predation and domestic violence.

They were also endemic between two pairs of men: poor immigrant men, many not yet married, at the limits of London’s economy. And a range of more established men who were able to pay for hospitals and personal care, like James Boswell.

“Syphilis and other STIs can have a tremendous impact on morbidity and mortality, and fertility,” Szreter explains. “Therefore, infection rates represent a serious gap in our historical knowledge and have a profound impact on health, demographics, and economic history. We hope our research can help change this. hoping.”

“Understanding infection rates is also an important way to gain access to the most private, and thus historically hidden, human activities, sexual activity and behavior.”