Treponematosis and African Slavery.

The so-called unitarian (or unicist) concept of treponematosis emphasizes the evolutionary relationship of yaws, pinta, endemic syphilis, and sporadic syphilis, regarding them all as varieties or syndromes of one disease caused by one parasite, Treponema pallidum (Hudson, 1946). The unitarian view accepts the fact that there is no known test by which the parasites of these treponemal infections can be qualitatively differentiated, and concludes that the four clinical syndromes represent a classification based on epidemiology and geography, and not on aetiology. This concept also includes the belief that endemic non-venereal forms of treponematosis were widespread in the past, and that it was improvement in personal and community hygiene, rather than some change in the parasite, which converted non-venereal (endemic) syphilis into venereal (sporadic) syphilis pari passu with the evolution of urban civilization (Hudson, 1 958a). The implications of the unitarian view have recently been elaborated in two papers correlating treponematosis in the one case with anthropology (Hudson, 1963a) and in the other with religious pilgrimage including the Crusades (Hudson, 1963b). In relation to anthropology the following ideas are developed: