B, M, O ̄, P, P (M.), P-
(E.), S R-, S (M.), T, T
T.
duspnoia “difficulty in breathing” or “shortness of breath” – more a symptom than a
diagnosis: H C A 3.31; P 23.48, 92; G Sympt.
Caus. 1.7 (7.137 K.); -G, D. M. 262 (19.420 K.); but associated in
S A, In Hipp. Aphor. (CMG 11.1.3.2, pp. 196–197), especially with
the elderly.
See also: A P, A, A T, K,
P.
ecliptic circle the great circle inclined relative to the axis of the daily rotation and along
which the Sun moves; the Moon and planets move near it. See H,
O, and P; cf. BNP 4 (2004) 792–794, W. Hübner.
See also: A, B A, E, E
K, G, H, N, T V, T
B, T B.
elephantiasis or elephas usually translated “leprosy,” but the terms encompass at
least two afflictions with often-loathsome symptoms. A 4.13 (CMG 2,
pp. 85–90), describes what is most likely leprosy (also, he says, called the “lion-disease,”
and other names): the patient presents gradually increasing signs including: foul breath,
muddy urine, dryish and cracked tumorous swellings, rough and thick like elephant-
hide, enlarged veins, increasing hair-loss over the whole body, tongue covered with
pellets resembling hailstones, fingers and toes encrusted with leikhenes, pruritic ulcers
under the ears, nose with rough black pustules, finally body-wide pruritic ulcers and
nodules that forecast the decay of fingers, toes, then penis and testicles (if male), nose,
feet and hands, which detach, leaving open, malodorous and large ulcers, especially on
the legs. Still the patient does not die: the disease “has a very long life, like the animal,
the elephant” (4.13.17 [p. 89]); cf. A A 13.120 (pp. 730–731 Cornarius),
and C 3.25. Currently named Hansen’s Disease, leprosy is a chronic infection by
Mycobacterium leprae, with symptoms fairly similar to Aretaios’ description. The ancients
(incl. Aretaios) sometimes included satyriasis and boubones among the signs, suggesting
Bancroft’s filariasis (often termed “elephantiasis”; a mosquito-borne lymphatic infestation
of Wucheria bancrofti (Cobbald) Seurat), dramatically displayed in the male by hugely
swollen testicles, as well as “elephant-like” and overly swollen legs; Aëtios’ cure for this
elephas was castration (ibid., pp. 732–733). The H C, Regimen in Acute
Diseases (App.) 2 (2.398 Littré), on Gale ̄n’s reading (4.15 [15.758–761 K.]), describes a
similar affection, without naming it elephas. See: J. Scarborough, Medical and Biological
Terminologies 2nd ed. (1998) 50–51. Grmek (1989) 165–171 argues that leprosy did not
afflict the Greco-Roman world before ca 250 BCE; cf. also BNP 7 (2005) 417–418, V.
Nutton.
A (M.), C, -D (M.), H (V.),
P. M. V 1.15, P H, S (E.).
Empiricists sect of medical practice founded ca 250 BCE by P K; they
rejected all theorizing about the “hidden conditions” of the body, and asserted doctors
could obtain all needed knowledge through careful observation, recording similar sets
of symptoms and antecedent circumstances, and subsequent empirical determination
of effective and ineffective treatments for each syndrome. See esp. C, E,
GLOSSARY