The Green Monster: Stokes's 1944 Modern Clinical Syphilology

Abstract

Background:

There is much information on the life and accomplishments of John Hinchman Stokes (1885–1961), the dermatologist and syphilologist. There is little detailed information on his 1944 classic text on syphilis, Modern Clinical Syphilology.

Objective:

To review and critique this book.

Methods:

A careful review of the book, his life, and the accomplishments that were undertaken in relation to the age in which he lived.

Results:

The book is indeed a goldmine of information of all aspects of syphilis from pre–World War I (1905) until the late (1944) World War II era.

Conclusion:

The factors that make it a classic are as follows: (1) the disease had a specific cause; (2) Stokes's 25-year obsession with the disease; (3) there was no effective simple cure for most of the time he was studying it; (4) Stokes was an obsessive, intelligent, well-trained physician; (5) he lived in a well-developed, reasonably stable country; and (6) he was able to see how the disease could be adequately treated with penicillin and compare these events with those in the prepenicillin era.