Thesis on tubercular leprosy, or the elephantiasis græcorum : with some general observations on that disease as it prevails at the Cape of Good Hope : submitted to the Medical Faculty of the Senatus Academicus of the University of Edinburgh / by Alex. Abercrombie, M.D.

  • Abercrombie, Alexander.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Thesis on tubercular leprosy, or the elephantiasis græcorum : with some general observations on that disease as it prevails at the Cape of Good Hope : submitted to the Medical Faculty of the Senatus Academicus of the University of Edinburgh / by Alex. Abercrombie, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    not lost altogether; his strength becomes more and more undermined, and at length death puts an end to his pro- tracted sufferings. With regard to the femoral tumour to which Dr Adams first di-ew attention as being found in patients suffering from Elephantiasis in Madeira, and which Dr Kinnis also found as a symptom of the disease occurring at the Mauritius, from the information which I have received, it does not appear to be a usual concomitant of this disease as it occurs at the Cape. Dr Minto, the medical superintendent of the Leper Institution at Cape Town is of tliat opinion; and my father himself, on the occasion of a visit which he made to the In- stitution on the 27th of July 1858 (which I may observe is on an island at the mouth of Table Bay, about eight miles from Cape Town), could only learn from a few of the patients that they occasionally suffered from such a symptom, and that the swelling usually disappeared again of itself; and as those patients who had occasionally observed the appearance of such a swelling were lepers suffering from the anses- thetic form of the disease, he was disposed to conclude that it was a symptom occurring sometimes in the case of ulcera- tions in the feet, and from the unhealthy matter absorbed exciting iniiammation in the glands of the groin in passing- through them. Another symptom respecting which medical writers on leprosy are still divided, is the libido inex2:)lebilis; some asserting that it is a peculiarity of the disease, whilst others entertain the opposite opinion, and are inclined to think that the sexual powers of lepers are impaired. The truth will be found to lie perhaps between the two opinions. The disease, it would appear, seldom occurs under the age of puberty, and thus few opportunities are afforded of ascertaining the truth of what has been asserted, that the evolution of the genital organs is retarded by the poison of leprosy. But that lepers possess the ordinary sexual de- sires, and may propagate their species, is a well ascertained fact at the Cape, from the very circumstance of the disease being in many instances hereditary. Dr Minto, I may state, however, inclines to the opinion that lepers have unusually strong sexual desires—an opinion, it may be supposed, well