Kate Callaghan
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Birth:                    14 Jun 1850, Effin, Limerick, Ireland
Death:                  Australia?
Burial:                  Unknown
 
Very little is known about Kate Callaghan.  She was the youngest child of John Callaghan and Nora Carroll.  She was born on June 14, 1850, in Effin, County Limerick, Ireland.  Along with the rest of her family, she emigrated to Adelaide, South Australia, on the Bee in 1858.  It is known that Kate worked as a domestic servant in Waterloo, and that she was admitted to the State Hospital in Adelaide on January 28, 1868, where she was diagnosed with syphilis.  She was only 17 years old. 
 
In an age before antibiotics, venereal disease was the AIDS of the day.  A study of London of the 1770s showed that one in five men had syphilis and that the rates of gonorrhea and chlamydia were even higher.  The social aspect of the disease cannot be overrated, especially for women. 
 
As well as causing infertility, syphilis can induce miscarriages and stillbirths.  Some children born to syphilitic mothers will never show any signs of infection.  Others die in infancy or develop serious health complications.  A 1910 Australian study referred to as the Melbourne Experiment found that as much as 34% of “street urchins” had congenital syphilis, meaning they had contracted the disease in utero.   Also known as The Great Pox (as opposed to small pox), syphilis was extremely difficult to cure.
 
According to "A Patient's Point of View Nineteenth-Century Syphilis Treatment" (Fisher, 2003):
 
Caused by a spiral-shaped bacterium, Treponema pallidum, and spread by intimate contact, syphilis has three stages that have been recognized for centuries. Primary syphilis, manifested by a painless sore or chancre at the site of infection, disappears in weeks (see illustration p. 17). Secondary syphilis, characterized by a rash, may last many months, usually up to a year (see illustration p. 17). In one out of four cases, secondary relapses occur, giving episodic skin and mucous membrane manifestations of the illness for as long as five years. Waxing and waning commonly occurs with untreated syphilis. Both early stages eventually resolve even without treatment, leading patients to believe they have been cured. Infected individuals are highly contagious during the early stages, that is, the first few years, but after that time they no longer spread syphilis to sexual partners. The illness then has a period of latency that may last from a few weeks to three decades. Tertiary syphilis, which becomes evident long after the original infection, appears as damage to the neurological, cardiovascular, and musculoskeletal systems. Patients may lose their vision, become demented, develop heart problems or experience severe bone pain. Syphilitic lesions, gummas, may appear in the skin, mucous membranes, internal organs, bones, eyes, and other parts of the body.
                                                                                                                                                                         http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/docedit/351
 
In the early nineteenth century, syphilis was a deadly illness, the cure of which was uncertain.  Doctors used various treatments, but they provided symptomatic relief, not an end to disease progression. Many physicians recommended mercury compounds, orally or topically, despite the toxic side effects.  For example, calomel (mercurous chloride) caused anemia, stomatitis, and renal failure.  Some doctors prescribed potassium iodide in various forms—gargles, lotions, tonics, salves—although it caused profound gastro-intestinal disturbances, dreadful skin reactions, and impaired intellect and involuntary motion.  The ineffectiveness of treatments did not discourage their wide-spread use, even when they had fatal side effects.
 
Much of Linda Fisher’s fascinating study was gleaned from the diary of Joseph J. Mersman (1824-92), a Catholic, German immigrant in Missouri.  Mersman, an unmarried grocer clerk, wrote (in French, to protect his privacy) about his treatment:

I must write in French, because I want to recount the miser-able consequences of an illness....It is secondary chancre with which I have suffered in the last five weeks. A Doctor Petri cured me with "Sarsaparilla." I had to drink 6 gallons, a half gallon a day. What a terrible medicine! But at present I don't feel completely recovered because there is still a place that is more painful than it ought to be. But I have to carry on for the first year as though I had nothing to fear from a return of the illness.
 
Unfortunately, his relief soon vanished. In mid-April, Mersman reported,

I am again troubled with that damned Complaint which has already given me so much trouble this winter. Doctor Petri has had the brazen-facedness to charge me $40 and his care is still imperfect. It has lately shown itself again on my tongue and my lips. The Doctor has given me a preparation to wash the sore places with, and as soon as [it is] warm again I shall have to endure the damnable Cure again, and hope to God I may get cured for I am getting desperate, for unless I am cured I shall never marry, and as soon as I am certain that I cannot marry I shall care damn little about getting rich or making or even remaining longer an honest man. Were I to push matters now I doubt not but that I could sleep every night with a good looking woman, but curse this affliction I dare not do it. I feel like courting a little now and then and have the acquaintance of a good-looking young lady, but the excitement of feeling is forbidden by Medecin.
 
It is unknown if Kate had to endure this kind of cure, nor how her family reacted.  No trace of her has been found after her diagnosis in 1868, though the search continues.  It is unknown whether she recovered, if she ever married, or if she had children, or where and when she died.  May she rest in peace. 
 

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