And then malnutrition made survivors that much more susceptible to disease. In short, it sucked. The transmission of disease largely went one way, from the old world to the new, but the Americans did have one gift for Europe, venereal syphilis. It showed up in Europe around 1493, and even though Europeans are very fond of ascribing syphilis to each other, Italians called it the French disease, the French called it the disease of Naples, Poles called it the German disease, Russians called it the Polish disease, the truth is venereal syphilis was spread by sailors who'd returned from the Americas. In fact, in his book The Columbian Exchange, Crosby tells it like this, Sailors by the nature of their profession are men without women, and therefore men of many women. We can imagine no group more perfectly suited for guaranteeing that venereal syphilis would have worldwide distribution. Who says history books are boring?