ly
i : l | k 1 ' I' r.. HJ.*. ' ■ ; • rii'ri'N.iki. ,
I! f A:;.
r i" t: i
ti
I f
Iir'“i' ;’ f 1H ■. 'm • ' i! <i*i
Mrif,
A
'ilk
! ( ;
fame name. It is more terrible than
any other difeafe, producing frequently
a dreadful end : it gives a
difguiling appearance to the patient,
as the body by its colour, roughnefs,
and fcaly appearance, refembles the
ikin of an elephant. Whoever compares
your and Mr. Peterfen’s defcription
of this difeafe with that o f the
antients, will not find it an eafy
matter to take the Icelandic fcurvy
for any thing elfe but the elephantiaiis.
In my opinion, both Ettmuller, as
well as Boerhaave and his famous commentator
baron Van Swieten, would
have done better not to call the elephantiaiis
the higheil degree o f the
fcurvy, or thatthey had not confounded
thofe two difeafes, fo different in their
beginning, progrefs, nature, and remedies.
Thofe among us who have written of
the theory of difeafes, have with more
propriety given the name of fcurvy
where a gradual increaiing languor
takes place, together with a bleeding,
{linking and putrid breath, and many
coloured blackifti-blue fpots on the
2 body.
body, particularly round the roots o f
the hair, and which principally proceeds
from corrupted ildt animal
food, aii-d the want o f vegetables*
The elephantiaiis, on the other hand,
which is alfo called Lepra Arabum, is
rather an hereditary difeafe ; the ildn
becomes thick, unequal, gloify, and
lofes its fmoothnefs ; the hair falls off,
languor and want o f feeling take place
in the extremities ; the face becomes
difguiling and full o f biles, and the
patient gets a hoarie naial voice*
In the real leprofy (impetigo, lepra
Grscorum) the ilvin becomes wrinkled
and full o f fcales, which feern to
be ilrewed With bran, often biirll,
itch exceedingly, and are filled with a
watery moiilure.
Mr* Sauvage mentions feveral forts
o f elephantiaiis ; but it is a quefdon
whether they all differ or not, as he
might have multiplied their number*
I believe that the elephantiafis mentioned
by Cleyer in his Eph. Nat*
Curiof. and Sauvage’sjavanele elephan
tiaiis are very like to the Icelandic.
At leail it is certain that the elephan-
^ tiaiis
¿ . ¡ A i t