If he lay down flat, the heavy head showed a tendency
to fall back and produce a sense of suffocation. For a long time
he was an inmate of the London Hospital, where special quarters
were provided for him, and it was there that he was found dead,
April 11, 1890; while in bed his ponderous head had fallen
backward and dislocated his neck.
Ainhum may be defined as a pathologic process, the ultimate
result of which is a spontaneous amputation of the little toe. It
is confined almost exclusively to negroes, chiefly males, and of
African descent. In Brazil it is called "ainham" or "quigila."
"Ainham" literally means to saw, and is doubtless a colloquial
name derived from a supposed slow, sawing process. The Hindoo
name for it is "sukha pakla," meaning dry suppuration.
In 1866 da Silva Lima of Bahia, at the Misericordia Hospital,
gave the first reports of this curious disease, and for quite a
period it was supposed to be confined to Brazilian territory.
Since then, however, it has been reported from nearly every
quarter of the globe. Relative to its geographic distribution,
Pyle states that da Silva Lima and Seixas of Bahia have reported
numerous cases in Brazil, as have Figueredo, Pereira, Pirovano,
Alpin, and Guimares.
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