Anonymous limerick:

   

   The Course of Syphilis

   

   There was a young man from Black Bay

   Who thought syphilis just went away

   He believed that a chancre

   Was only a canker

   That healed in a week and a day.

   

   But now he has "acne vulgaris" --

   (Or whatever they call it in Paris);

   On his skin it has spread

   From his feet to his head,

   And his friends want to know where his hair is.

   

   There's more to his terrible plight>

   His pupils won't close in the light

   His heart is cavorting,

   His wife is aborting,

   And he squints through his gun-barrel sight.

   

   Arthralgia cuts into his slumber;

   His aorta is in need of a plumber;

   But now he has tabes,

   And saber-shinned babies,

   While of gummas he has quite a number.

   

   He's been treated in every known way,

   But his spirochetes grow day by day;

   He's developed paresis,

   Has long talks with Jesus,

   And thinks he's the Queen of the May.

   

   (P. 765 in: Prescott, L.M., Harley, J.P.

   and Klein, D.A.: Microbiology, 3^rd Ed.,

   Wm.C.Brown Publ., Dubuque 1996)

   

   

   

   

   Anonymní limerik:

   

   Průběh syfilis

   

   Byl jeden mladý lovec žen

   Syfilis? Řek` si: drobnost jen

   Myslel že jeho tvrdý vřed

   Je legrace co zmizí hned

   Že uzdraví se za týden

   

   Akné vulgaris dostal však

   (v Paříži jmenují to tak?)

   Vyrážka divná jakási

   Od palců nohou po vlasy

   Jež ostatně mu slezly pak.

   

   Nemá to však jen na kůži.

   Zorničky světlo neúží

   I srdce se mu krabatí

   A jeho žena potratí

   Šilháním taky neduží.

   

   Bolestí spát už nezvládá

   Aorta se mu rozpadá

   Tabické strasti překruté

   A děti? Nožky zahnuté!

   A v těle gummat nadvláda.

   

   Jak mohli, tak ho léčili

   Mikrob byl ale přečilý

   Obrna tělo přemohla

   modlitba zázrak nezmohla;

   nakonec z toho zešílí.

   

   Přeložil O. Z.