Serenus Samonicus makes mention of a few popular remedies for scabies, prurigo, and papulæ, but he gives no description of these complaints.
Octavius Horatianus recommends for scabies (meaning, we suppose, the psora of the Greeks,) bleeding, purging, frequent baths, and external applications containing natron, frankincense, and sulphur. He does not mention lepra by name, nor does he seem to allude to it at all.
Marcellus recommends for lepra a composition containing equal parts of natron, frankincense, litharge, and sulphur pounded with vinegar.
Vegetius says that the scabies of cattle “contagiosa est et transit in plures.” Probably Virgil alludes to the scab of sheep in this line: “Nec mala vicini pecoris contagia lædant.” (Ecl. i.) He mentions, as remedies for it, sulphur, litharge, pitch, hellebore, &c. (Georg. iii, 449.) See also Geopon. (xvi, 18, xviii, 15); Columella (viii, 5); and Gratius (Cyneget. 412).
Isidorus gives the following definitions of the complaints we have been treating of: “Lepra vero cutis asperitas squammosa lepidi similis unde nomen accepit: cujus color nunc in nigridinem vertitur, nunc in alborem, nunc in ruborem. Scabies tenuis asperitas et squammata est. Impetigo est sicca scabies; prominens a corpore cum asperitate et rotunditate formæ. Hanc vulgus sarnam appellat.”
Justin applies the terms vitiligo and scabies to the diseases treated of in this chapter. See Hist. (xxxvi, 2.) We now turn to the Arabians.
In the Latin translation of Serapion, lepra and psora are described under the generic term of “impetigines in quibus excoriatur et scinditur cutis;” but they are further distinguished from one another by the specific titles of albaras nigra and pruritus. The former is characterized as arising from the melancholic humour, and as casting off round scales. The latter is said to consist of pustules, which appear on different parts of the body, are variously figured, and cast off furfuraceous scales. The leuce is described by the name of baras, as arising from viscid, pituitous blood, and being produced by a defect of the assimilative faculty. In it the flesh itself is said to be changed to a white colour. If, when pricked with the head of a needle it bleeds, there is a probability of cure; but if it does not bleed, it is incurable. The two alphi are described by the names of morphea alba and nigra. The morphea alba resembles the white albaras (leuce) only that in the latter the affection of the skin is more deep-seated, and the hairs in it are turned to a white colour; but in morphea the only change is in the external appearance of the skin. The morphea nigra (melas?) is said to resemble the albaras nigra (lepra nigricans?) only that it is more superficial.
In the Latin translation of Avicenna by Bullonensis, alphos albus and niger are distinguished by the names of morphea alba (or alguada), and morphea nigra; leuce by that of albaras; and lepra by those of albaras nigra and impetigo excorticativa. The specific differences between them are stated with great precision. The morpheæ are superficial affections of the skin, but the albaras affects also the flesh, penetrating sometimes down to the bone. All these diseases are said to arise from a weakness of the assimilative faculty. In the albaras nigra, or leprosy, the skin is said to be covered with scales, like those of a fish. Like the authorities formerly quoted, Avicenna states that in alguada (alphos albus) the hairs do not change their colour, but that they do so in albaras. The puncture of a needle likewise extracts blood from the guada, but not from the baras.
Avenzoar makes mention of the morphea alba and nigra, but has not described them particularly. These authors seem to have treated lepra and psora like the Greeks, by bleeding, melanogogues, and abstergent applications to the skin, such as the two hellebores, lime, lupines, &c.