:Treponematosis is a disease of four syndromes, caused by Treponema pallidurn, constituting a biological gradient in which endemic syphilis is firmly established between venereal syphilis and yaws. Medical history offers many instances of gradual conversion of one syndrome into another under the influence of changes in the environment. Many of these transitions were reversible.The thesis here advanced suggests that treponemal infection of man originated in Equatorial Africa as yaws in Paleolithic times, that it accompanied the hunter-gatherers in their migrations, and that it changed to endemic syphilis in cooler and dryer areas. Endemic syphilis found an exceptionally favorable environment in the village, a social invention of Mesolithic/Neolithic time which spread over the world, the New as well as the Old. When urban civilization evolved in the Middle East, conditions were favorable for the parallel evolution of venereal syphilis.

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