Solution (source code)

= Solution

\b[Translation.] The <stomach>, the internal <organ> responsible for <digestion>, performs <digestion> poorly whenever <diarrhoea> takes hold of a person; and the <diarrhoea> consists of liquid, undigested <food>. Unless this happens from a temporary cause for only one or two days, the whole person becomes weak through wasting of the body, and the <coeliac affection of Aretaeus> becomes a <chronic disease>, through weakness of the <digestive heat> and chilling of the <stomach>. Then the <food> is indeed broken down under the action of <heat>, but the <heat> does not digest it completely or turn it into an appropriate nutritive fluid: it leaves it half-finished (the printed word is incomplete), through failure of the completing power. The <food>, abandoned by the process, changes for the worse in colour, smell and consistency. Its colour is white and lacking <bile>; its smell is foul and dung-like; and it is liquid and without cohesion because the process has failed, retaining only the beginning of <digestion> as its one good quality. Hence there is gaseous, continual, foul-smelling <belching> in the <stomach>.

\b[Text and medical meaning.] The scan ends PDF volume p. 101 with \i[λείπε-] and begins p. 102 with \i[ἀδρανείῃ]. The translation marks this defective word rather than silently pretending that the missing ending is visible. The corresponding edited Greek has \i[λείπει], “leaves”, which supplies the sense used here. The Oxford extract also separates the conditional clause from the following sentence more abruptly than that edition; the translation carries its evident qualification forward. <On the Causes and Signs of Chronic Diseases by Aretaeus of Cappadocia>[II.7, opening paragraph: λείπει ἀδρανείῃ τοῦ τέλεος; the edited text also has ἀλλ᾽ and πρὸς δὲ καὶ linking the conditional construction]{ref}

<Aretaeus of Cappadocia> uses \i[κοιλίη] for the <stomach> or digestive belly and \i[σκῆνος], literally a tent or dwelling, for the body. \i[ἀτροφίη] indicates wasting or failure of nourishment; it need not denote the modern histological concept of <atrophy>. “Appropriate nutritive fluid” renders \i[χυμὸν οἰκεῖον]: the product that the author thinks suitable for bodily nourishment, rather than a modern chemical identification. The pale, foul, loose output is an observed feature; the explanation by weak <digestive heat> is the author's theory. It is not a modern account of <digestion>. <Examination papers for the Degree of Bachelor of Medicine by the University of Oxford (1864–1867)>[PDF volume pp. 101–102, Greek extract attributed to Aretaeus, Causes and Signs of Chronic Diseases II.7]{ref}

\b[The historical <coeliac affection of Aretaeus> cannot establish a modern diagnosis of <coeliac disease>.] Modern <coeliac disease> involves an <immune response> to <gluten> that damages the <small intestine>; the ancient symptom description alone cannot identify that mechanism. The diagnosis should therefore not be read back into the passage as certain. <Celiac Disease by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases>[Definition and Facts: chronic digestive and immune disorder triggered by gluten, damaging the small intestine]{ref}