Penicillin was discovered in 1928, and effectiveness of treatment with penicillin was confirmed in trials in 1943, at which time it became the main treatment.Many famous historical figures, including Franz Schubert, Arthur Schopenhauer, Édouard Manet, Charles Baudelaire, and Guy de Maupassant are believed to have had the disease. Friedrich Nietzsche was long believed to have gone mad as a result of tertiary syphilis, but that diagnosis has recently come into question. Arts and literature
The earliest known depiction of an individual with syphilis is Albrecht Dürers Syphilitic Man, a woodcut believed to represent a Landsknecht, a Northern European mercenary. The myth of the femme fatale or "poison women" of the 19th century is believed to be partly derived from the devastation of syphilis, with classic examples in literature including John Keats "La Belle Dame sans Merci".The Flemish artist Stradanus designed a print called Preparation and Use of Guayaco for Treating Syphilis, a scene of a wealthy man receiving treatment for syphilis with the tropical wood guaiacum sometime around 1590. Tuskegee and Guatemala studies
The "Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male"  was an infamous, unethical and racist clinical study conducted between 1932 and 1972 by the U.S. Public Health Service.
Deaf-mute people in history
The Ottoman Sultans used people referred to as "congenital deaf-mutes" (called in Turkish dilsiz or bizeban, i.e. "mute" or "without tongue") in their own personal service from the 15th century to the end of the Ottoman Empire. Due to their nature, they were often entrusted with confidential and delicate missions, including executions. Deaf-muteness in art and literature
Stephen Kings novel The Stand features a main character named Nick Andros who is referred to as "deaf-mute." Though deaf people almost always have a voice, King interpreted the term literally and made Nick unable to vocalize. However, he could read lips and make himself clearly understood by pantomiming and in writing. The phrase is used in The Catcher in the Rye to indicate someone who does not speak his mind, and hears nothing, in effect becoming isolated from the world. Chief Bromden, in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, is believed by all to be deaf and mute, but in fact he can hear and speak; he does not let anyone know this because, as he grew up, he was not spoken to (making him "deaf") and ignored (making him "mute"). The character Singer in the novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, written in 1940, is referred to as "deaf-mute" throughout. In the classic Zorro stories, television series, etc. Zorros aid Bernardo, a mute, pretends that he can also not hear, in order to get information to aid his master in his fight for justice.