Leprosy is a corruption of the organs and humors, having its beginning from vessels and its completion in fountains or outside the vessel. When the humor of nutriment is corrupted, the organs are easily corrupted, as they are fed from the humors. Every [kind of] elephantiasis or leprosy, according to Constantine [ citation ], has its beginning principally from the corruption of black bile. Therefore Constantine says that leprosy is a cold dry affliction, originating from black bile which is tightened and rotten, appearing on the surface of the body. For it originates from the four humors when they are rotten, yet tightened and corrupted, and transformed into black bile, as the same man says in the same place. Rotting of the humors with which black bile is mixed, on account of its cold dry quality that resists rotting, cannot occur in the veins or in vessels, until it is integrated in the body. It causes a delay in the limbs in which the rotting occurs, from which leprosy itself follows.

original latin

Universaliter autem haec passio talia habet signa, caro in eis notabiliter est corrupta, et species immutatur, rotundantur oculi, et palpebrae corrugantur, aspectum habent scintillatem maxime in leonina, angustiantur nares et contrahuntur, vox rauca efficitur, potissime in elephantia, tuberositates crescunt in corpore multa ulcera minuta, et dura, et rotunda.

Crurium fit quaedam insensibilitas, et etiam aliorum extremorum. Ungues grossantur cum quadam inaequalitate et quasi scabiosi efficiuntur. Item, contrahuntur digitorum articuli, et manus quasi aridae efficiuntur, corrumpitur eorum anhelitus, et eius saetore saepius corrumpuntur.

Signum autem leprae maxime confirmatae apparent in extremitatibus, ut in pedibus, cruribus, et in facie, et praecipue in musculorum corporis consumptione et minoratione. Praeter istas conditiones leprae communes quaelibet species leprae habet suas proprias et speciales.

Nascitur lepra a causis variis, praeterquam ab humoribus praedictis, sicut ex cohabitatione et convictu et frequenti confabulatione cum leprosis, contagiosus enim est morbus et aliorum infectivus. ... Aliquando accidit ab extrinseco, sicut ex aere corrupto et infecto ex mala diaeta, ut ex cibis melancholicis nimis frigidis et siccis, ut ex carne bovina, asinina, ursina, et huiusmodi. Aliquando accidi ex cibis corruptis et corruptioni obedientibus, ut ex carne porcina granulis infecta et superseminata, et vino impuro et corrupto. Aliquando ex morsu alicuius reptilis humorum et membrorum substantiam corrumpentis.