The Feringhee Disease in India

During the period of British rule, syphilis was known in India as the feringhee disease (European disease). In his book India in bondage, Jabez Thomas Sunderland has quoted evidence from Frederic Tice (on page 388) who has claimed that syphilis arrived in India from Europe. In his book Practice of Medicine (Volume III), Tice wrote: “The researches of Okemura and Sesuki for Japan and China and Jolly and others for India, showed that syphilis did not exist in any of these countries until it was introduced from Europe.” Syphilis was ten times more frequent among the British troops than among the native troops—Havelock Ellis makes this claim in his book Sex in Relation to Society. On page 327, Ellis wrote: “Within the army in India it is found that venereal disease is ten times more frequent among the British troops than among the native troops.”