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ELEPHANTIASIS (Barbadoes leg; Boucnemia)

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Originally appearing in Volume V09, Page 262 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ELEPHANTIASIS (Barbadoes See also:leg; Boucnemia) , is a disease dependent on chronic lymphatic obstruction, and characterized by See also:hypertrophy of the skin and subcutaneous See also:tissue. Two distinct forms are known, (I) elephantiasis arabum, due to the development of living parasites, filaria sanguinis hominis (or filaria Bancrofti), and (z) the non-filarial See also:form due to lymphatic obstruction from any other cause whatsoever, as See also:erysipelas, the See also:deposit of tuberculous or cancerous material in the lymphatic glands, phlegmasia dolens (See also:white leg), See also:long-continued See also:eczema, &c. The enlargement is limited to a particular See also:part of the See also:body, generally one, or in rare cases both of the See also:lower limbs, occasion-ally the scrotum, one of the labiae or the mammary gland; far more rarely the See also:face. An attack is usually ushered in by febrile disturbance (elephantoid See also:fever), the part attacked becoming rapidly swollen, and the skin tense and red as in erysipelas. The subcutaneous tissues become See also:firm, infiltrated and hard, pitting only on considerable pressure. The skin becomes roughened with a network of dilated lymphatics, and vesicles and bullae may form, discharging a chyle-like fluid when broken (lymphorrhoea). In a later See also:stage still the skin may be coarse and See also:wart-like, and there is a See also:great tendency for varicose ulcers to form. At the end of a variable See also:time enlargement ceases to take See also:place, and the disease enters a quiescent See also:state: but recrudescences occur at irregular intervals, always ushered in by elephantoid fever. At the end of some years the attacks of fever cease, and the affected part remains permanently swollen. The only difference in the See also:history of the two forms of the disease lies in the fact that the non-filarial form progresses steadily, until either the underlying See also:condition is cured, or in the See also:case of See also:cancer, &c., brings about a fatal issue. The elephantiasis due to filaria is spread by the agency of mosquitoes, in whose bodies the intermediate stage is passed. The dead See also:mosquito falls upon the See also:water, which thus becomes infected, and hence the ova reach the human See also:stomach.

The See also:

young See also:worm develops, bores through the gastric mucous membrane and finally becomes lodged in the lymphatics; usually of one or other of the extremities. A large number of embryonic filariae are produced. Some remain in the lymphatic spaces and cause lymphatic obstruction, while others enter the See also:blood stream by See also:night (filaria nocturna), or by See also:day (filaria diurna). It is supposed that a mosquito, biting an infected See also:person, itself becomes infected with the blood it abstracts, and that so a new See also:generation is See also:developed. Treatment for this condition is unsatisfactory. Occasionally the dilated See also:lymph trunks can be found, and an operation per-formed to implant them in some vein (lymphangeioplasty). And in some few other cases artificial lymphatics have been made by introducing sterilized See also:silk See also:thread in the subcutaneous tissues of the affected part, and prolonging it into the normal tissues. This operation has been most successful when performed on elephantoid arms dependent on a See also:late stage of cancerous See also:breast. See also:Elevation of the See also:limb and elastic pressure should always be tried, but often amputation has to be resorted to in the end. The disease is totally different from the so-called elephantiasis graecorum or true leprosy, for which see LEPROSY. See also:ELEPHANT'S-See also:FOOT, the popular name for the plant Testudinaria elephantipes, a native of the Cape of See also:Good See also:Hope. It takes its name from the large tuberous See also:stem, which grows very slowly but often reaches a considerable See also:size, e.g. more than 3 yds. in circumference with a height of nearly 3 ft. above ground.

It is See also:

rich in See also:starch, whence the name Hottentot See also:bread, and is covered on the outside with thick, hard, corky plates. It develops slender, leafy, climbing shoots which See also:die down each See also:season. It is a member of the monocotyledonous See also:order Dioscoreaceae;See also:half of the 17th See also:century, when it became a centre for the See also:trade with See also:south See also:Russia.

End of Article: ELEPHANTIASIS (Barbadoes leg; Boucnemia)

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