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A similar type of elephantiasis may occur after extirpation of the lymph glands in the axilla or groin; in the leg in long-standing standing varix and phlebitis with chronic ulcer; in the arm as a result of extensive cancerous disease of the lymphatics in the axilla secondarily to cancer of the breast; and in extensive tuberculous disease of the lymphatics.
The most common of these is that hideous and loathsome disease known as elephantiasis in which certain parts of the patient becomes greatly swollen and distorted. An arm or a leg may become swollen to several times its natural size, or other parts of the body may be seriously affected.
In similar cases tumefaction assumes enormous proportions, and Schenck speaks of a man whose head exceeded that of an ox in size, the lower part of the face being entirely covered with the nose, which had to be raised to enable its unhappy owner to breathe. Rayer cites two instances in which elephantiasis of the breast enlarged these organs to such a degree that they hung to the knees.
This especially filled him with rage, for he was a fanatic in his religion, and utterly detested the monotheism of the Jews. So oppressed with grief was this heathen persecutor that he took to his bed; and in addition to his humiliation he was afflicted with a loathsome disease, called elephantiasis, so that he was avoided and neglected by his own servants.
Such a case was reported by Alard, in which the elephantiasis seems to have been complicated with eczema of the ear. Willier, also quoted by Alard, describes a remarkable case of elephantiasis of the face.
Other parasites cause similar growths in various shellfish. The great enlargements of the arms or legs or other parts of the body seen in patients affected with elephantiasis is an abnormal growth due to the presence of the parasitic filaræ in some of the lymph-glands where they have come to rest. Finally, the parasite may exert a direct physiological effect on the host.
Various laws and regulations were made to prevent the spread of the contagion. In 1540 it was said that there were as many as 660 lepers in one hospital in Paris. No mention is made in the Hippocratic writings of elephantiasis graecorum, which was really a type of leprosy, and is now considered synonymous with it.
Riolan in the early part of the seventeenth century reported a case of defective nymphae; Neubauer in 1774 offers a contrast to this case in an instance of triple nymphae. The nymphae are sometimes enormously enlarged by hypertrophy, by varicocele, or by elephantiasis, of which latter type Rigal de Gaillac has observed a most curious case.
Chalk mentions partial dislocation of the lower jaw from an enlarged tongue. Lyford speaks of enlargement of the tongue causing death. The above conditions are known as macroglossia, which is a congenital hypertrophy of the tongue analogous to elephantiasis. It is of slow growth, and as the organ enlarges it interferes with deglutition and speech.
I was quite a kid when he made his great speech on the Egg Question and beat it for Europe but what I did recollect didn't encourage me to go and chat with him about the duties of a parent. As I remember him, he was a rather large man with elephantiasis of the temper.
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