CHAPTER XIII
ELEPHANTIASIS

The writings of that great authority Leoniceno might have
sufficed to make it evident that the so—called French Sickness
is not the disease that is called by the Greeks elephantia, or
sometimes elephantiasis, or elephas. However, certain writers
later than he, with irrational obstinacy, have recorded their
opinion that elephantia and the French Sickness are one and
the same disease, and that in treating them the same remedies
ought to be used. It will therefore be expedient for me to ful—
fil my promise and to add a few remarks on this subject. What
in the main led them astray was the fact that they observed
that the ancients wrote on leprosy and elephantia as two dis—
tinct diseases. Hence they thought that the ancients meant
by the word leprosy the disease which we now commonly call
leprosy, and they did not know what elephantia could be, un—
less it were the disease which later was called French Sickness.
But this shows that the writings of the ancients had not been
studied with sufficient care by these obstinate persons. For
it is not true, as they suppose, that by leprosy the Greeks meant
the disease now commonly called leprosy; the Greeks meant
another and far milder affection which they discuss along with
psora,59 i. e. scabies. 'This affection may indeed lead to ele—
phantia, which, strictly speaking, is that ailment which not
only the common people but also recent medical writers, wheth—
er Latin or Arab, call leprosy. " Paul*? discusses leprosy along
with psora, and says: **Both of these diseases cause a rough—
ness of the outermost skin together with itching and atten—
uation of the body, originating in the black bile humor''.
Galen, in his treatise 'On Tumors',*' says: "*Psora and leprosy
are affections due to black bile and attack only the skin. But
when they take firm hold of the blood—vessels and the flesh,
they are called cancer and elephas". Also he says that cer—
tain persons suffering from elephantia became leprous when

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