Congenital syphilis in the past: Slaves at Newton Plantation, Barbados, West Indies

Abstract

Hutchinson's incisors and Moon's molars are specific lesions of congenital syphilis. The extensive but fragmentary clinical literature on these conditions describes reduced dimensions and thin enamel in the permanent incisors and first molars, crowding and infolding of the first molar cusps, notching of the upper incisors, and apical hypoplasias of the permanent canines. A Barbados slave cemetery (ca. 1660-1820 AD) includes three individuals with these features, suggesting a frequency at birth of congenital syphilis in the population approaching 10%. These three cases show triple the frequency of all hypoplasias and more than seven times the frequency of pitting hypoplasia present in the remainder of the series. The recognizable congenital syphilis cases account for much of the remarkably high frequency of hypoplasias in the series as a whole. We infer that syphilis contributed substantially to morbidity, infant mortality, and infertility in this population. Presence or absence of congenital syphilis may account for much of the variability in health and mortality seen among nineteenth century African-American populations.

A pre-Columbian case of congenital syphilis from Anatolia (Nicaea, 13th century AD)

“…On the labial surface at the incisal edge of the upper left central incisor, the enamel is missing and its free edges show a deep vertical notch, made by breaking away or non-development of the middle lobe of the tooth crown ( Figure 5). Just as described by Hutchinson and Fournier (in Anderson, 1939:53;Jacobi et al, 1992:146: Hillson et al, 1998, the medial and distal angles of the upper left central incisor are seen to be rounded off. The greatest mesiodistal diameter (7.65 mm) of the tooth is reached at midheight of its crown.…”

“…Mays (1998) emphasised that strong evidence for venereal syphilis in the Old World requires specimens with congenital syphilis-thus showing unequivocal lesions. Among the four types of treponemal diseases, only venereal syphilis is regularly passed transplacentally from an infected mother to the foetus, and only the congenital variant of syphilis has the dental stigmata such as Hutchinson's incisor, Moon's molar, darkened enamel of some teeth, and diminution of tooth size (Anderson, 1939;Fiumara & Lessell, 1970;Jaffe, 1972;Steinbock, 1976;Ortner & Putschar, 1985;Jacobi et al, 1992;Cook, 1994;Mays, 1998;Hillson et al, 1998). Although it is known that yaws is also transmitted transplacentally to the foetus, yaws is not endemic to Anatolia and is therefore outside the scope of the present study.…”

Trans‐Atlantic slavery: Isotopic evidence for forced migration to Barbados

“…Some of the dental and cranial remains, however, were relocated to the United States for further study. The physical anthropological analyses that followed led to a series of publications that have added significantly to our understanding of slave life in Barbados (Corruccini et al, 1982(Corruccini et al, , 1985(Corruccini et al, , 1987aCorruccini, 1983, 1986;Jacobi et al, 1992). In the late 1990s, one of us (K.A.S.)…”

Diagnosis of Mercurial Teeth in a Possible Case of Congenital Syphilis and Tuberculosis in a 19th Century Child Skeleton

“…Others include linear enamel hypoplasia in all four incisors with a deficiency Journal of Anthropology 7 in enamel above (apically) a hypoplastic line [67,68], the distinct demarcation between healthy and diseased enamel, and severe enamel deficiencies exposing multiple tubercles in molars [67].…”