Venereal Disease And The Lewis And Clark Expedition

by Thomas P. Lowry, Edwin C. Bearss (Foreword)

One of the greatest challenges faced by William Clark and Meriwether Lewis on their 1804–6 Corps of Discovery expedition was that of medical emergencies on the trail. Without an attending physician, even routine ailments and injuries could have tragic consequences for the expedition’s success and the safety of its members. Of these dangers, the most insidious and potentially devastating was the slow, painful, and oftentimes fatal ravage of venereal disease. Physician Thomas P. Lowry delves into the world of nineteenth-century medicine, uncovering the expedition’s very real fear of venereal disease. Lewis and Clark knew they were unlikely to prevent their men from forming sexual liaisons on the trail, so they prepared for the consequences of encounters with potentially infected people, as well as the consequences of preexisting disease, by stocking themselves with medicine and the latest scientific knowledge from the best minds in America. Lewis and Clark’s expedition encountered Native peoples who experienced venereal disease as a result of liaisons with French, British, Spanish, and Canadian travelers and had their own methods for curing its victims, or at least for easing the pain it inflicted. Lowry’s careful study of the explorers’ journals sheds new light on this neglected aspect of the expedition, showing in detail how sex and venereal disease affected the men and their mission, and describes how diverse peoples faced a common threat with the best knowledge and tools at their disposal.

Genres: History

116 pages, Hardcover

First published January 3, 2005

About the author

Thomas P. Lowry is a retired psychiatrist and associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco. He is the author of Curmudgeons, Drunkards, and Outright Fools: Courts-Martial of Civil War Union Colonels, available in a Bison Books edition, and The Story the Soldiers Wouldn’t Tell: Sex in the Civil War.

Reviews

[Emily Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is short and sweet--delivering exactly what the title describes. i enjoyed the writing style as well, making what could be a dry, boring subject interesting and intriguing. highly recommended to anyone, really, because this book is so damn good!!

[Rogue Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Venereal disease is rampant, normal and expected in the expedition. The supplies list includes unguents, instruments and of course mercurial solutions to treat the disease. Lowry covers a lot of ground and suggests that syphilis and gonorrhea are new world diseases that infected Europe with deadly, virulent strains three years after Columbus's first voyage - in 1495.

Also of interest are the excerpts from Clark's and others journals on sexuality and sexual behavior of the men of the expedition and also the Native Peoples they met along their route.

The expedition traveled along the Missouri in South Dakota. In the 1980s Larry Zimmerman and John Gregg documented and reburied the skeletal remains of a Native group that lived in the area before the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The osteopathology was published to the web in the 1990s but seems to have been lost to time.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

timeless

[Andra Watkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who knew our ancestors were so horny???