A 260mm 10″ pewter syringe with a 150mm plunger from Henry VIII’s sailing warship Mary Rose that sunk in the Solent in 1545. It would’ve been used for treating syphilis with caustic fluids like Hg but no cases of the disease were found amongst the human remains recovered from the wreck. [1800×1800]
by whatatwit
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**Urethral Syringe**
This syringe was one of three recovered from the surgeon’s cabin of the Mary Rose.
Of the three it is the only one made of pewter, with a bronze needle and a leather washer on the plunger. It measures 260mm with a plunger of 150mm.
Syringes such as this were used for urethral irrigations, inserted into the urethra and flushing it out with caustic fluids, such as mercury, which would burn off sores caused by diseases such as syphilis.
We feel we should add that, although traces of mercury were recovered from the surgeon’s chest, none of the human remains showed traces of syphilis!
https://maryrose.org/artefacts/urethral-syringe/
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It’s amazing and says a lot about the sex lives of people at those times how quickly and widely syphilis spread. Supposedly brought back to Spain in 1492 and in 50 years it’s everywhere in Europe.
But mercury is not a caustic fluid?
Well clearly it worked