766 DISEASES OF NUTRITION — HYPERTROPHIES, 



summit, and forming an irritable-looking sore not much 

 disposed to heal. 



Pathology. — The cause of these growths is not knowii ; in 

 structure they consist of an overgrowth of the fibro-cellular 

 elements of the skin, their minute examination disclosing an 

 excess of fibrillated material enclosing cell-elements with excess 

 of a gelatinous material. It is rather an uncommon condition, 

 does not seem to be at all under the control of medicine, and 

 is -only partially mitigated through surgical interference. 



Elephantiasis. 



This is a condition of excess of development of dermal and 

 subdermal tissues of a diffuse character, usually involving the 

 larger proportion of these structures of an entire limb, and in 

 the horse is usually the result of repeated attacks of inflamma- 

 tion of the lymphatic vessels of the part affected. It may 

 appear after a primary attack of lymphangitis, but rarely. The 

 first appearance of the disease is a swelling of the subcutaneous 

 tissue, the true dermal becoming involved secondarily. When 

 affected the skin becomes thickened, somewhat hardened and 

 more difficult to move on the subcutaneous tissue ; it is dry 

 and coriaceous, occasionally scaly, and falls into folds and 

 fissures which, in cases of long standing, may chap and sup- 

 purate. This thickening of dermal and subdermal parts, after 

 a time, causes much alteration of the limb and deformity, 

 with impaired power of motion. 



Pathology. — The essential characters of this condition, as 

 revealed by morbid anatomy, would appear to be increase of 

 the fibrous subcutaneous tissue and hypertrophic changes of 

 the entire skin, together with infiltration amongst the fibrous 

 tissue of numerous and varied cell-growths, and a large amount 

 of gelatiniform material. These changes would appear to 

 follow the diseased condition of the lymphatics, the immediate 

 result of which is obstruction of their canals, and retention of 

 lymph and lymphoid elements in the tissues, these latter 

 ultimately becoming more or less perfectly organized ; all the 

 hyperplastic changes beginning in the subdermal fibrous 

 tissues and extending gradually into the fibrous structures of 

 the corium, the epidermis becoming involved at a later period. 

 With these hypertrophic changes in the fibrous structure of 



