RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 [The Baie disease: was it syphilis?]
JF Canadian Medical Association Journal
JO CMAJ
FD Canadian Medical Association
SP 1284
OP 1288
VO 116
IS 11
A1 LeBlond, S.
YR 1977
UL http://www.cmaj.ca/content/116/11/1284.abstract
AB In 1773 an epidemic disease with cutaneous manifestations appeared in Baie Saint-Paul, Quebec and spread rapidly from nearby les Eboulements to the entire island of Montreal. The epidemic was in many ways reminiscent of a typical outbreak of syphilis, a condition then well known in Europe. Dr. Charles Blake of Montreal, as well as Drs. James Bowman and Philippe Badelart of Quebec, would not acknowledge any other diagnosis. The latter two physicians were commissioned by General Haldimand, governor of Canada, to investigate and treat this new disease. Patients were often cured by potions or ointments containing mercury if used from the onset of symptoms. However, Dr. Robert Jones, another physician from Montreal, submitted a different opinion: the clinical course of the disease, the anomalies of its transmission, its sometimes intriguing sequelae and its unpredictable response to mercurial therapy led him to believe that it might be an entity entirely different from syphilis as it was then known in Europe. Half a century earlier, in Scotland, a similar outbreak had occurred for which the same reservation had been made with regard to a possible diagnosis of syphilis.