Note 117 — Second Part. (continued 2)

Marcellus Empiricus, De medicam. liber ch. 19., Adversum Elephantiasin, quod malum plerumque a facie auspicatur, primumque oritur quasi lenticulis variis et inaequalibus, cute alba, alibi tenui, plerisque locis dura et quasi scabida et ad postremum sic increscit ut ossibus, caro adstricta, tumescentibus primum digitis atque articulis indurescat. Hic morbus peculiariter Aegyptiorum populis notus est nec solum in vulgus extremum, sed etiam reges ipsos frequenter irrepsit, unde adversus hoc malum solia ipsis in balneo repleta humano sanguine parabantur. Mustelae igitur exustae cinis et eiusdem belluae, id est elephantis sanguis immixtus et inlitus, huiusmodi corporibus medetur. (Against elephantiasis, which malady is generally seen in the face, beginning first with a sort of scales of various shape and different size, the skin being white, in some parts thick, in others thin, in most places hard and with a sort of scab over it; eventually the malady increases to such a degree that the flesh is as it were drawn tight over the bones, the fingers and joints swelling first, and becomes indurated. This disease was particularly familiar among the peoples of Egypt, and not merely did it affect the lowest vulgar, but even frequently crept in amongst kings themselves, whence it came that, to combat the evil, baths filled with human blood were prepared for them in the bath-house. The ashes therefore of a burned weasel and the blood of the corresponding beast, that is to say the elephant, were mixed together and used as an ointment in the remedial treatment of bodies so afflicted).—Actuarius, Meth. med. bk. VI. ch. 6. On diseases of the Face, reads: Ad affectus eminentes, facieique pruritus ac principum elephantiae, (For the principal affections, itchings of the face and the beginnings of elephantiasis). Again Aretaeus, De sign. chron. bk. II. ch. 13. edit. Kühn p. 179., says: τὰ πολλὰ μὲν ὅκως καὶ ἀπὸ σκοπιῆς τοῦ προσώπου ἀρχόμενον τηλεφανὲς πῦρ κακόν, (Most oftentimes resembling a far-seen bale-fire beginning from the watchtower, as it were, of the face).