He lived in an age when physicians frequently experimented on themselves .
He was the subject of an often - repeated legend claiming that he had inoculated himself with gonorrhea , using a needle that was unknowingly contaminated with syphilis .
Living in an age when physicians frequently experimented on themselves , he was the subject of an often - repeated legend claiming that he had inoculated himself with gonorrhea , using a needle that was unknowingly contaminated with syphilis .