elephantiasis

[Greek elephantiasis =a cutaneous disease, especially prevalent in Egypt, so called from its likene to an elephant's hide. ( Liddell & Scott. ) ] Med.: Two distinct diseases were long confounded under this term, the Grecian and the Arabian Elephantiasis. (1) Grecian or Greek Elephantiasis ( Elephantiasis Græcorum), Tubercular Elephantiasis. It is characterized by the breaking-out over the face, ears, or limbs of reddish or dark tubercles from the size of a split-pea to that of a large nut; the skin becomes thickened, wrinkled, and of diminished sensibility. It is ultimately fatal. It is common in India, where two forms of it occur, in Arabia, Africa, Madeira, and the West Indies, as also in Norway and Iceland. [LEPROSY.] (2) Arabian Elephantiasis ( Elephantiasis Ara bum ), called also Elephant Leg, and locally in Ceylon Galle Leg, on the Indian peninsula Cochin Leg, and in the West Indies Barb a does Leg, or sometimes Yam Leg. It consists, according to Dr. Musgrave, of a migratory inflammation of the lymphatic system, and may affect various organs, especially the legs. Rhazes, an Arabian physician, described it about A. D. 850. In the East it is common on the south-west coast of Ceylon, in Cochin, Malabar, also in Japan, Egypt, and parts of Aby in i a. Its chief locality in the western world is Barb a does, where at first it was limited to the negroes, but in 1706 began to attack also the Creoles. Its causes are unknown.