durhamjen
"Johnson discovered today that he was descended from a syphilitic mummy. His response was to say she was a pioneer in sexual health care, although it's thought the mercury was to cure her. Silly me thought she must have caught it from her philandering husband."
'Silly' you , quite possibly. Certainly ignorant of the facts and most certainly jumping to a conclusion .
Whilst syphilis is indeed known to be a sexually transmitted disease you don't have to have sexual intercourse to get syphilis. Just being in close contact with an infected person's genitals, mouth, or rectum is enough to expose you to the infection. Certainly in the 16th Century this was a possibility if you were nursing caring for the syphilitic .
It is said of Johnsons great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandmother:-
She married a church minister, and lived for much of her adult life in Strasbourg. There, it is believed, she may have contracted syphilis while caring for patients with the sexually transmitted disease.