Before the time of Celsus, the poet Lucretius
first speaks of elephantiasis graecorum, and assigns Egypt as the
country where it occurs. Celsus gives the principal
characteristics, and adds that the disease is scarcely known in
Italy, but is very common in certain other countries. Galen
supplies us with several particular but imperfect
cases--histories of elephantiasis graecorum, with a view to
demonstrate the value of the flesh of the viper, and in another
review he adds that the disease is common in Alexandria. Aretaeus
has left a very accurate picture of the symptoms of elephantiasis
graecorum; and Pliny recapitulates the principal features and
tells us that the disease is indigenous in Egypt. The opinion of
the contagiousness of elephantiasis graecorum which we find
announced in Herodotus and Galen is more strongly insisted upon
by Caelius Aurelianus who recommends isolation of those affected.
Paulus aegenita discusses the disease. The Arabian writers have
described elephantiasis graecorum under the name of juzam, which
their translators have rendered by the word lepra. Later,
Hensler, Fernel Pare, Vesalius, Horstius, Forestus, and others
have discussed it.
The statistics of leprosy in Europe pale before the numbers
affected in the East.
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