Notes
I do believe that those folks could cure rickets, which syphilis is a kind of, to some extent.
Since the middle ages, nobility had been taking silver on the belief it helped their health; hence the term "blueblood" I understand;
but that is not all; American Indians used the pokeweed root--which when an overdose is taken, may cause some hallucination--to try to cure rickets.
Rickets includes not only syphilis but lyme disease and its close cousin typhus--common in the N.E. (not surprising as the people of the 17th-18th century, in Europe and the U.S. just picked lice off their clothing if they bothered at all; one gentlemen managed to get one of his reisdent lice to give him directions).
But for any cure to work, the treatment had to be early.
For the record, that does not always work either. I received ear swelling from a tickbite; the tick, which did not take much blood from me for it was not swollen, bit me for maybe 10 minutes before I picked it off.
I tried to be treated in 2 weeks, but the doctor molested me--though I clearly had lyme, not syphilis (lyme is characterized by a rash in the extremities; little genital mucosa, especially for the first year or so, and heart but not lung infection).
Within 2 months, I went to someone else, and got on azithromax with my cat who also had gotten a tickbite from my ticks. We also took his vibramycin, related to doxycycline. We took this 2 months. I took as well liquid silver, chlorophyl, and pennyroyal extract, plus some pokeweek extract. We also took a supplement for the heart, coenzyme A10 for my heart was almost instantly infected though they tell me it takes time.
No luck. I had a rash in my foot and a toe that was so infected it was about to become gangrenous as with typhus. Fortunately, my father recommended melatonin which helped some.
My heart and toe were cured, but like Mr. Ferrit in the poem by Judith Wright, who cuts down a tree but still has hayfever, I still have lyme disease or typhus; "nothing will cure it." And that's today folks.