Vitiligo

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Vitiligo Cornelius celsus per se nullum periculum affert tamen et feda est et ex malo solo habitu fit, cuius species sunt tres, alphos vocatur ubi color albus est fere subasper et non continuus et quedam quasi gutte disperse esse videntur interdum etiam latius et cum quibusdam intermissionibus serpit, melas colore ab hac differt quia niger est et umbre similis cetera sunt eadem, et leuce habet quiddam simile alphos et magis alba est et altius descendit in eaque albi pili sunt et lanugini similes, omnia hec serpunt sed in aliis celerius et in aliis tardius et cetera.


Apparatus:

Vitiligo AC efp | Vitreligo B | Vitrigo j
affert AC jp | afert B f | aufert ms. e
et feda B efjp | ex se feda C | ex sesfeda A
solo habitu jp | habitu sola ms. e | corporis habitu Celsus
{species sunt} sp͡es add. f
alphos | alfos B
disperse | disparse ms. e
vtunt~ AC | uident~ B efp | videantur Celsus
{interdum} & AC | etiã B | eciam efj
latius | lacius ef
colore ab hac | a. h. c. B
differt AC ej | difert B f | om. p
eadem om. AC
{eadem sunt} et om. jp
quidam ABC f | quiddam ejp Celsus
{simile} alphos | alfos f
altius | alcius j
descendit | ascendit j
albi | alibi j
pili | pilli f
lanugini AC Celsus| lanugine B efjp
et cetera om. efj


Translation:

Vitiligo, according to Cornelius Celsus, carries no danger in itself, but it is unseemly and it results from a single bad condition {Pliny: bad condition of the body}. Of it there are three kinds: Alphos so-called is of a white colour and almost quite rough and not uninterrupted, as if some drops had been sprinkled on {the skin}. Sometimes it creeps along in a very wide fashion and with gaps. {The next,} Melas, differs from the previous one in colour, because it is black and similar to shadow, otherwise they are the same. {The third,} Leuce has some characteristics similar to Alphos, but it is whiter and it grows more deeply into the skin; on it there are white hairs similar to down. All these afflictions spread out, but faster with some people and more slowly in others.


Commentary:

Simon quotes from Celsus, 5, 28, 19, ed. Spencer (1935-8: II.172); or in the online Teubner edition, ed. Marx (1915: 252) [[1]]:

Vitiligo:
is glossed by Lewis & Short (1879) “a kind of cutaneous eruption, tetter” {i.e. tetter - any pustular skin eruption like eczema, herpes, impetigo, ringworm, etc.}. The word is derived from vitium “fault, defect, imperfection”; it is also attested e.g. in Pliny.

For Alphos:
see Alfos leucas.

Melas/ Leuce:
Melas is simply the Greek word μέλας /mélas/ meaning “black”, and Leuce, Greek λεύκη /leúkē/ “white”. In the Hippocratic writings λεύκη /leúkē/ denotes “a cutaneous disease, so called from its colour: a kind of leprosy or elephantiasis” (LSJ).


Medical remarks:

It is difficult to identify vitiligo since the descriptions given fit a large number of skin complaints. As quoted above, LSJ see it as “a kind of leprosy or elephantiasis”, whereas Spencer, the editor of the Loeb edition of Celsus, remarks in an annotation (1935-8: II.172-3):
"Under the name vitiligo Celsus describes varieties of psoriasis. Alphos, named from its dull white colour which resembled that of leprosy, was probably psoriasis guttata. The different colour of melas was perhaps only due to dirt. Leuce, the bright white form, regarded as practically incurable, may have been only a more severe and intractable form of a disease which still often resists all remedies.”

Vitiligo is still used in modern medical terminology, e.g. the Martin (1987: 666) say: vitiligo (leucoderma) “a condition in which areas of skin lose their pigment and become white. There are no other changes, but the white patches, which appear anywhere, grow in size until much of the body is affected. The cause is unknown and treatment is unsatisfactory in Europeans”.


WilfGunther 15:54, 24 October 2014 (BST)


See also: Alfos leucas


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