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ELEPHANTIASIS (Barbadoes See also: form due to lymphatic obstruction from any other cause whatsoever, as See also: erysipelas, the deposit of tuberculous or cancerous material in the lymphatic glands, phlegmasia dolens (See also: white
See also: leg), long-continued 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 face
.
An attack is usually ushered in by febrile disturbance (elephantoid 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 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 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 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 mosquito falls upon the See also: water, which thus becomes infected, and hence the ova reach the human 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 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 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 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 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 die down each season
.
It is a member of the monocotyledonous See also: order Dioscoreaceae;See also: half of the 17th century, when it became a centre for the See also: trade with See also: south See also: Russia
.
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