Dr Ainslie's Observations on the Lepra Arabian. 2.S7 



that country, in which I believe it is at present no where to be found ; 

 at all events very rarely. 



We have to regret that the very able writer cited above (Adams\ who 

 has allotted several pages of his valuable work to leprous impurities, did 

 not do something more than he has done to remedy the want of arrange- 

 ment, which has been so long complained of in this class of diseases : for, 

 notwithstanding iiis great research, and evident conviction of what was 

 wanting, he seems finally to liave taken without distrust the nomenclature 

 such as he found it, however vague and indiscriminate ; and, after detailing 

 with a master's hand many of the most marked symptoms of the Elephan- 

 tiasis of the Greeks, under its proper name, he adds: '■ But when I use the 

 single term Elephantiasis, my wish is, to confine it to the modern disease, 

 tlie Barbadoes leg :" in this way the old confusion is carried on ; and to two 

 complaints, very opposite in their nature, is given the same appellation. 



There are no less than three names bestowed by the Tamool doctors on 

 tlie Elephantiasis of the Greeks : Kiistam, Curin Kustam, and Phi Vishadi ; 

 the first signifies in their language the disease that cuts short ; the second 

 has the word Cdrin prefixed, to denote the black or rather purple colour of 

 the tubercles, and of the countenance and skin altogether, of such as labour 

 under this dreadful affliction. The third and last name. Phi Vishadi, or 

 great disease, is a term used by the Brahmins, and others of high rank, 

 merely from delicacy, to avoid pronouncing the word Kustdm, which when 

 spoken never fliils to excite a degree of disgust. 



The leprosy of the Arabians, by which I must be understood to mean the 

 Elephantiasis of the Greeks, is by no means of rare occurrence in the 

 Indian peninsula, and spares no caste nor sect, though it is certainly more 

 commonly found amongst the poor than the rich, owing no doubt to their 

 manner of living, and consequent languid circulation. It is not often, as I 

 have already remarked, that it shews itself before tlie age of puberty ; but 

 when it does, it seems to repress in a wonderful degree the growth of the 

 body. Boys or girls so disordered never attain to any graceful stature, but 

 soon become meagre, shrivelled, and miserable ; their voices are shrill as 

 well as nasal, and continue so. With coming years they evince little sexual 

 desire, and that hair which usually covers the chin of boys, and pubes, after 

 a certain period, cither never appears at all, or is of a very delicate texture, 

 and but thinly scattered When the disease begins at this early stage of 

 life, the mind as well as body seems to suALm- in the general wreck. Such 



