First recorded in Europe in the late 1400s, syphilis quickly spread throughout the world. A disease that slowly kills its victims, syphilis allows them enough time to spread it to others. It was not until the 19th century that syphilis was realized to be a sexually transmitted disease. Because syphilis was poorly understood, it became the subject of many myths and misconceptions, and people who suffered from the disease were often stigmatized. "Syphilis, Second Edition" looks at the disease from historical and epidemiological perspectives, describing the discovery of the bacterium that causes syphilis as well as the medical advances that shed light on how the disease spread, how that spread could be prevented