The White Plague [Volume: 7(1988), pp. 431-504]

THE WHITE PLAGUE
435
REPORTER
You mean... it's a lot more serious than leprosy?
SIGELIUS
I should say so. More serious and more interesting. Only the initial symptoms are characteristic of leprosy: a small white spot on the surface of the
body. At that stage we call it Macula marmorea-macula meaning 'spot,'
and marmorea meaning 'marble'-because the spots are utterly painless
and as cold and white as marble.
REPORTER
Which is why it's also known as the 'white plague.'
SIGELIUS
Yest. But after the first stage it goes off in its own direction and bears no
resemblance whatever to Leprosis maculosa. We call it the Cheng Syndrome,
Morbus Chengi. Dr. Cheng of Peking, a pupil of Charcot (and a specialist
in internal medicine, of course), was the first to publish a description of
the symptoms, and a fine description it was too. I was a reader for it back in
1923, before anyone had an inkling the disease would become a pandemic.
REPORTER
A what?
SIGELIUS
A pandemic. A disease that infects the whole world, takes it by storm.
China provides us with an interesting new strain of something almost
annually-it's the poverty-but none has had nearly the success of the Cheng
Syndrome. The disease of the hour, you might say. A good five million
have died of it to date, twenty million have it now, and at least three times
as many are going about their business, blithely unaware of the marble-like,
marble-sized spots on their bodies. And it's only three years since the disease
was discovered in Europe! By the way, you might mention that the first
case was diagnosed here, at my clinic. We're rather proud of it, actually.
In fact, one important symptom is now called the Sigelius symptom.
REPORTER (scribbling)
Important symptom... Named for Dr. Sigelius...
SIGELIUS
That's right. The Sigelius symptom. As you can see, we're doing everything
we can. Thus far we have established beyond doubt that the Cheng Syndrome affects exclusively individuals in the forty-five-and-older category.
Apparently it finds a fertile ground in the normal organic changes we call
aging...
REPORTER
Extremely interesting.