EL'EPHANTI'ASIS ( Lat., from Gk. iNutiav rlaals, from Aitbas, dephas, elephant, sn exiled because the skin becomes wrinkled like the hide of an elephant). A medical term applied to any marked hypertrophy of the skin and areolar tissues, though generally used to designate a disease accompanied by (edema and progressive hypertrophy of the cutaneous and areolar tissues. There are two diseases called by the name. One is the elephantiasis of the Greeks, which is re garded as the same as the Eastern leprosy and as the spcdalskhed of Norway. and the chief features of which are deseribed in the article LEPROSY. ht this affection the size of the limbs and the state of the epidermis are comparatively slightly altered. The other is the elephantiasis of the Arabs, identical with the Barbados icy (q.v.) of the East and West Indies and the Levant, where it is endemic. After headache. fever, nausea, and vomiting, the leg, or arm, or scrotum becomes inflamed. len, and tender; bulia. may
form and burst. exuding serum. In a few hours or a few days the attack ends. But others fol low, and the affected part becomes,. larger and larger, each attack leaving it greater in size. The scalp, face, or female genitals may become enlarged. as well as any part of the body; but the leg is the most often affected. Manson, in 1883, established the fact that endemic elephanti asis is due to the presence in the lymphatics of a parasitic worm called filaria. Turner, of Samoa experience, believes SOOIC cases are due to malarial infection. Rest in bed, with elevation of the affected part. elastic bandaging. massage, galvanism, palliate some cases; change of climate and quinine cure a few; amputation may be neeeosary in some instances.