Lord John Grey Series: Confirmation of Geillis Having Syphilis

While I was away, I was able to finish reading A Trail of Fire. This post will be mainly about a detail revealed in “Lord John and the Plague of Zombies,” the confirmation that Geillis had syphilis. In his interaction with her, Lord John recognizes the syphilitic infection.

She rubbed absently at her forehead, and he saw, with a small prickle of revulsion, the faint stippling of a rash. He’d seen that before; the sign of advanced syphilitic infection.

In three former posts, I discussed how hard it is to determine whether Geillis had syphilis or not. I also speculated when she acquired it. In Voyager, Claire suspects she had the disease and that it was probably the main reason behind Geillis’s madness, even though she is not sure about her assessment. When explaining to Jamie that she needs to inject Ian with an antibiotic, she states:

“. . . Pronounced dementia is one of the symptoms of the advanced disease – though I must say it would be hard to tell in her case. Still, better safe than sorry, hm?” (ch. 62)

Claire also expresses similar doubts when interacting with Geillis.

She wasn’t healthy; a glance of her mottled complexion and the dark circle beneath her eyes was enough to show that. But was she actually ill? (ch. 60)

Why is Claire unable to diagnose the disease without so much precision as Lord John? Part of the answer might lie in the fact that with the advent of penicillin, it is hard to observe the progression of a disease. It is hard for a twentieth-century doctor to find somebody with an advanced case of syphilis (at least in the “developed” world) as opposed to someone from centuries back who frequents brothels to obtain crucial political information.  Of course, Claire is not the only one confused. Readers are also confused because of the limited information provided in Voyager. In fact, there is evidence against Geillis having syphilis. First, it seems that Geillis in Voyager is exhibiting the earliest symptoms of the advanced stage of the disease (tertiary syphilis). She has a rash, but she is lacking the gummatous lesions, which are prominent tumor-like inflammations on the soft tissue (and that includes the face). It seems that the disease is starting to affect the soft tissues, but it has not progressed to the bones. In fact, when Joe Abernathy asks Claire to examine Geillis’s skull, she describes the manner of death. The skull does not seem to be syphilitic since the gummas are absent. The following picture portrays a syphilitic / gummatous skull.

Probably, the purpose of omitting all these lesions from Geillis’s physical  description is to have readers guessing about her condition. Furthermore, Geillis’s madness developed separately from the disease. In fact, she was mad before she went through the stones. Roger MacKenzie speculates while reading her grimoire that she was “A nutcase for sure” but with “method and organization” in her investigations (Drums of Autumn, ch. 32).

When did Geillis acquire syphilis? She got the infection after she gave birth to William Buccleigh MacKenzie, who does not suffer from congenital syphilis and who was able to produce a healthy line of descendants even into the twentieth century. Claire even discusses a particular case of congenital syphilis with Brianna in book 5:

He’d had the characteristic “saddle nose,” with its pushed-in bridge, as well as a jaw so malformed that I wasn’t surprised at his poor nutrition; he could barely chew. I couldn’t tell how much of his evident backwardness was due to brain damage and how much to deafness; he appeared to have both, but I hadn’t tested their extent . . . (The Fiery Cross, ch. 3)

It is hard to tell when exactly she acquired the illness. Geillis was promiscuous. However, in Voyager, she has a preference for young Scottish virgins. In “The Space Between,” St. Germain also remembers having sex with her, but he is free from the disease. It is likely that she acquired it from one of her later husbands. Her last husband liked women.

“My husband Barnabas was that sort – couldna keep his hands off any kind of machine. Or off the slave girls, either,” she added (Voyager, ch. 60).

I will write more about A Trail of Fire in my next few posts. I will start writing about Voyager in preparation for the third season of Outlander by December. Thanks for reading!

Sources

Gabaldon, Diana. “Lord John and the Plague of Zombies.” A Trail of Fire. London: Orion Books. 2012. Print.

– – -. Drums of Autumn. New York: Dell Publishing. 1997. Print.

– – -. The Fiery Cross. 2001. New York: Bantam Dell. 2005. Print.

– – -. Voyager. New York: Bantam Dell. 1994. Print.