Mercury for Syphilis
Long before antibiotics were developed, syphilis terrified society. Its gruesome symptoms—ulcers, dementia, and even death—demanded extreme solutions. Enter mercury, a highly toxic metal, used in ointments, vapor baths, and injections. Slogans like “A night with Venus, a lifetime with Mercury” captured the deadly irony: the cure was often more dangerous than the disease.
Side effects were brutal. Teeth fell out, skin peeled, and some patients suffered complete organ failure. Because syphilis itself caused neurological damage, doctors often couldn’t tell if the patient was dying from the disease—or the mercury. Some patients were even treated for decades, turning into walking mercury containers. It wasn’t until penicillin arrived in the 1940s that this horrific chapter of medical quackery finally ended.
