Xeroptalmia

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Xeroptalmia greci appellant genus aride lippitudinis in qua necque tument necque fluunt oculi sed rubent tamen et cum dolore quodam graves sunt noctuque gravi pituita inherescunt Cassius felix.


Apparatus:

Xeroptalmia AC e | Xerobtalmia f | Xerotalmia B

appellant e | appellãt AC | appelãt B | appellare f

aride AB e | arride C | om. f

lippitudinis (-dĩs A) A e | lipitudĩs BC | lup͡i f

neqʒ (nec e) tumẽt neqʒ (nec e) AC e | nʒ tument neqʒ f | nõ timẽt nec B

tm̃ AC | tñ B | tn̄ e | tantum f

et om. B e

cum om. f

noctuque gravi pituita inherescunt Cassius felix. om. e


Translation:

Xeroptalmia is what the Greeks call a kind of dry eye inflammation, where the eyes are neither swollen nor runny but are nevertheless red; they are heavy with pain and at night they stick together with diseased matter.


Commentary:

Although Cassius Felix in his De medicina mentions xerophthalmia twice, 29, 10, and 21, ed. Fraisse (2001: 62 and 66), where he offers the recipe for eye salves, collyria, for this condition, he only ever gives a fleeting definition of the affliction, (2001: 62): Facit ad xeropthalmiam id est siccam lippitudinem – "{Sc. The collyrium described} cures xeropthalmia, which is a dry eye inflammation", and the same brief definition occurs on (2001: 66).

Simon's entry is in fact a near verbatim quote from Celsus, 6, 6, 29, ed. Spencer (1935-8: II.216-8): Est etiam genus aridae lippitudinis: xeropthalmian Graeci appellant. Necque tument necque fluunt oculi, sed rubent tamen. et cum dolore quodam graves sunt noctuque gravi pituita inherescunt – "There exists a kind of dry eye inflammation, the Greeks call it xeropthalmia. The eyes are neither swollen nor runny, but they are blood-shot and heavy and in pain, and at night they stick together with diseased matter."

ξηροφθαλμία /xērophthalmía/, glossed by LSJ "inflammation of the eyelids, blepharitis sicca, with redness and smarting" is a compound of ξηρο- /xēro-/ "dry" + /ophthamós/ ὀφθαλμός "eye". The word was Latinized as xerophthalmia.

The term has survived into modern medical terminology, denoting "a progressive disease of the eye due to deficiency of vitamin A. The cornea and conjunctiva become dry, thickened, and wrinkled", Martin (1985: 673).


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