AINHUM

n. An African word signifying to saw or to saw off. Lat., dactylolysis spontanea. Fr., ainkum. Ger., Absägen. Sp., dactilolisia. A disease peculiar to the negro, consisting in a spon: taneous amputation of the little toe. It begins with a furrow on the lower surface of the toe at the proximal interphalangeal joint. ‘This furrow gradually surrounds the member and deepens until the bone is ex] d, and finally (in the course of several years) the toe, which in the mean time becomes TR and much enlarged, drops off. By some the disease is believed to be produced artificially by a ligature. It is most commonly met with on the west coast of Africa, in Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, and Buenos Ayres. and is also said to occur occasionally in India and in the southern United States. [G.]