Abstract

MARQUEZ MORFIN, Lourdes  and  MEZA MANZANILLA, Margarita. Sífilis en la Ciudad de México: análisis osteopatológico. Cuicuilco [online]. 2015, vol.22, n.63, pp.89-126. ISSN 0185-1659.

Syphilis was present in Mexico City among Spaniards, Indians and mestizos, after the Conquest and until the 20th Century. We systematically analyzed pathological traces of two sets of skeletons corresponding to the 17th, 18th and 19th Centuries: 1) the series from the San Juan de Dios Hospital, composed of 77 skeletons of both sexes, as well as the long bones from the ossuary of the cemetery: 180 tibias and 194 femurs; this hospital, which was designated -in 1865- as a public hospital for prostitutes, was where syphilis patients in general were held. 2) the series from the Indian Hospital of New Spain, from which we selected 325 skeletons whose conservation status was apt for osteopathological analysis. In both series, we calculated the frequency of injuries among men and women and identified the different levels of the development of syphilis, along with the distribution of modifications to each bone unit. Some of the skulls have sicca decay. The most affected long bones were: tibias and femurs. The osteopathological results of both these series were compared with results from the ossuary of Mexico City's Metropolitan Cathedral, from the same period (3 042 femurs; 2 207 tibias; 1 801 fibulas; 2 554 humerus, 2 835 cubits, 2 766 radials), which both show similar distribution pattern and location of the lesions, essentially in the diaphysis of long bones.

Keywords : syphilis; osteopathological analysis; 17^th-19^th Centuries; prostitutes; Mexico City.