This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1887 edition. Excerpt: ... area and give rise to diffuse warty thickening of the skin (Art. 395). They usually possess an abundant cellular stroma, and might almost be described as consisting of granulation-tissue. The epidermal strata are occasionally absent, but they may be present and notably hypertrophied. Scales and crusts of epidermal cells are frequently formed. 395. Acquired elephantiasis (elephantiasis arabum, pachydermia) is a chronic and extensive hyperplasia of the skin and subcutaneous tissue. The various affections which have been described as elephantiasis (arabum) are certainly not all of the same nature; but if we except what is sometimes called elephantiasis mollis or fibroma molluscum (Art. 399), an affection depending on some congenital condition, they are all associated with some cause which gives rise to long-continued or often-repeated inflammation of the integument. We said in Art. 394 that eczema was sometimes to be regarded as an inflammatory process leading to hypertrophy of the papillae. This hypertrophy may extend to the cutis and subcutaneous tissues and lead to notable thickening of the entire skin, especially in the legs. Other chronic inflammations may like eczema lead to a pachydermatous condition of the skin: such are, for instance, chronic varicose ulcers, and chronic inflammation of bones lying immediately underneath the skin. Many of the forms of elephantiasis, and especially those to which the name is more properly restricted, take their rise in frequently-recurring erysipelatous inflammation. Tropical elephantiasis is now generally recognised to be ultimately due to the presence of the Filaria sanguinis hominis (Art. 235), a parasite which infests the lymphatics of the scrotum and lower limbs, and gives rise to inflammation...