Case of elephantiasis / by George Southam ; communicated by T.B. Curling.

  • Southam, George.
Date:
[1847]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Case of elephantiasis / by George Southam ; communicated by T.B. Curling. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    tracted numerous fat globules, presented a cellular struc- ture under the microscope. Another portion, that had not been acted upon by any chemical re-agent, appeared, with a magnifying power of 400 diameters, to consist of nucleated fibres, epithelium-scales, fat globules and granules. The skin was also carefully examined, but beyond slight hy- pertrophy of the epidermis and cutis nothing unusual was detected. Though cases occasionally occur in this country resembling in a mild degree the Arabian elephantiasis, I am informed by several medical friends who saw my patient, and who had witnessed the disease amongst the natives of South America and the West Indian islands, that even there the tumefac- tion seldom attains so great a size as was observed in the case now related. The post-mortem examination tends to show that the dis- ease commenced in the veins, being probably the result of repeated attacks of inflammation of the capillaries, which gave rise to the pain and febrile symptoms in the earlier stages of the complaint. From the local nature of the pa- thological changes, the deposit found in the veins would ap- pear not to have been formed immediately from the blood, but from the effusion and consolidation of lymph in their coats, the coagulation of the blood in the folds of the flocculi contributing to fill up the calibre of the vessels. Several authors on elephantiasis allude to a morbid condi- tion of the veins; and Dr. Wise* has written an excellent paper to point out that it is produced by inflammation of them. He says, When the groin and thigh are examined in the acute stage, a swelling may be discovered, which ex- tends to the knee-joint, or even to the foot, following in this course the various branches, and is indicated by the • Transactions of the Medical and Physical Society of Calcutta, vol. viii. 1835.
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