Elephantiasis arabum / by Sir J. Fayrer and D'Arcy Power.

  • Fayrer, Sir Joseph, 1824-1907.
Date:
[1879]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elephantiasis arabum / by Sir J. Fayrer and D'Arcy Power. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    1/16
    nted frim the fmnsactians of the Pathological Society of London for 1879.] V'j^ Elephantiasis arabum, K^TEEE, M,D., F.E.S., and D'Aect Powee, B.A. IAM indebted to my friend and former colleague, Mr. S. Bowen Partridge, Professor of Surgery in the Medical College of Calcutta, for the two specimens of this disease that I have the honour of submitting to the Society this evening. He describes them as follows: One, the smaller one, is a very typical specimen of the lymph scrotum. I removed it on 19th June, 1878, from a Hindoo beggar, set. 25, named Gunga Vishnu. He was born in Hyderabad, but had resided in Calcutta for the last ten years. The tumour was of three years' growth, during which time he had irregular attacks of fever once or twice a month. During each febrile attack there was copious discharge of sometimes milky, sometimes sero-sanguinolent fluid, and he had got into the habit of giving himself relief by a rough sort of tapping, namely, pinching off a bit of distended integument with his nail and encouraging the fluid by pressure. The tumour after removal weighed 11 ounces. I operated hlood-- lessly, and he is making a good recovery, in fact, is nearly well. The other was an ordinary case (of elephantiasis), which I removed from a Brahmin, set. 30, resident of Calcutta, a broker. It was of two years' growth, and weighed after removal 3 pounds 4 ounces. I operated hloodlessly, and he also is doing well. I examined the fluid in the lymphoid case on one occasion, not very thoroughly, however, and did not find any filari^. These, therefore, are examples of the two forms of elephantiasis that are so frequently seen in some parts of India,i notably in Bengal and on the sea coast where the sea air and the malaria unite. I think they may be interesting to the Pathological Society if only as a supplement to the late communications on lymphoid disease, and I am enabled through the aid of Mr. D'Arcy Power to 1 I find, for example, that in twelve years, from 1859 to 1871, I operated on 193 cases, of which 158 recovered and 35, or 18-2 per cent., were fatal. The tumours varied in weight from a few ounces to upwards of 100 lbs.