Serapion, in like manner, describes the elephantiasis of the Greeks by the name of lepra. The face, he says, is swelled, livid, and covered with hard pustules, the hairs of the eyebrows fall off, the whole aspect becomes hideous, the voice is changed, the perspiration becomes vitiated, and ulceration seizes different parts of the body. The disease, he says, takes its origin from the liver, in which the office of sanguification is improperly performed. His remedies are bleeding, hellebore, the theriac, &c.
Avenzoar describes the lepra as a cancer arising from contact with other lepers, or from unwholesome food. He recommends to purge away the melancholic humour with scammony, colocynth, black hellebore, &c. The elephantia he describes as a disease in which the leg is swelled like the leg of an elephant. He considers it almost incurable.
Albucasis gives an account of the operation of burning the head for lepra, i.e. the elephantiasis of the Greeks.
The translator of Haly Abbas, namely, Stephanus Antiochensis, who says he wrote about the year 1127, describes the disease which we have been treating of by the name of elephantia. Like the others, Haly represents it to be a general cancer arising from black bile. He says it proves contagious by respiration. Among the symptoms, he mentions falling off of the ciliary and superciliary hairs, dryness of the nose, which sometimes falls in; in short, he enumerates the same symptoms as the preceding authorities. For the cure he directs us to bleed from the arteries behind the ears, those of the temples, or from a vein in the arm; to give emetics, such as hellebore; to avoid cold; to apply cupping-instruments to the scrobiculus cordis; to administer the theriac, &c. He recommends externally decoctions of beans and vetches at first; and afterwards stimulant lotions, containing arsenic, sulphur, quicklime, and so forth. He also applies the term elephantia, and sometimes elephas, to the swelled leg, which he considers to be a species of varix.
Alsaharavius describes four varieties of lepra, namely, the leonina, elephantia, serpentina, and vulpina. The disease, he says, may be contracted, 1st, by an hereditary taint; 2d, by the use of corrupted food, such as the flesh of buck-goats, cows, &c.; 3d, by contagion, through the medium of the respiration. He describes all the gradations of the disease with greater minuteness than any other ancient author. In its last stage, he says, the nose falls in, the hairs drop off, the voice is lost, ulcers break out on the skin, the extremities mortify and fall away, and the breath is fetid. His treatment varies according to the circumstances of the case, but, upon the whole, it is scarcely at all different from that of the others. By the name of elephantia he also describes the swelled leg, which he pronounces to be a very intractable disease. He directs us, however, to have recourse to bleeding, melanogogues, abstinence from gross food, emetics, and various external applications of a stimulant nature, among which he mentions burying the leg in hot sand.
The translator of Rhases also applies the term lepra to the elephantiasis of the Greeks. The colour of the eye, he says, is changed, the voice becomes rough, the face is swelled, like a bladder, and red with nodes, the hairs fall off, and the extremities at last become swelled and ulcerated. There is nothing peculiar in his treatment. He describes, likewise, the swelled leg by the name of elephantia or elephas. He says that, when tubercles arise on it, it is utterly incurable; but that when simply enlarged, it may be remedied by bleeding in the arm, cupping, emetics, attenuant food, and the like. In his ‘Continens,’ he calls the lepra (elephantiasis) hereditary and contagious. He says, it is a general cancer, arising from black bile. For the swelled leg he recommends, as in his other work, bloodletting and emetics, with stimulant applications, containing pearlashes, sulphur, &c., and also tight bandages.
Such is the history of elephantiasis given by ancient authors.
The earlier of our modern writers on medicine, describe elephantiasis as a species of lepra, of which they enumerate four varieties, namely, elephantia, leonina, alopecia, and tyria. This arrangement is evidently taken from Alsaharavius. Such is the account which Platiarius gives of these diseases. In like manner, the Pseudo-Macer ranks elephantiasis with lepra:
“Est lepræ species elephantiasisque vocatur,” &c. Upon this passage Cornarius makes the following annotation: “Vulgus medicorum Arabas in hoc secuti lepram cum elephantiasi confundunt. Immo lepram pro elephantiasi accipiunt.”
Guido de Cauliaco’s account of the disease is also nearly the same as that of Alsaharavius. He states decidedly that the disease is contagious, and recommends bleeding, purging, the actual cautery, the theriac of vipers. (vi, 1.) Rogerius remarks that the disease is contracted per coitum. (i, 15.) And here, by the way, we may be permitted to state that we have long been convinced that the syphilis of modern times is a modified form of the ancient elephantiasis. This opinion is maintained by several of the writers of the Aphrodisiacus, and also by the learned Sprengel, who gives a very interesting disquisition on Syphilis in his ‘History of Medicine.’