CHAPTER LXI 



FRAMBCESIA TROPICA 



Synonyms — Definition — History — Geographical distribution ■ — ^Etiology — 

 Histopathology — Symptomatology — Diagnosis — Prognosis — -Treatment 

 — Prophylaxis — References . 



Synonyms. — In the British Colonies the disease is usually called 

 ' yaws in the French colonies ' plan.' In Venezuela and other 

 South American countries the name ' bubas ' is much used. German 

 and Italian authors generally use the term ' Framboesia,' which was 

 first used by Sauvage in 1750 on account of the raspberry-like 

 appearance of the eruptive elements. Charlouis in 1882 suggested 

 the term 'Polypapilloma tropicum'; Noc, Stevenel, and Iman 

 introduced the term ' Castellani's spirochsetosis,' Da Matta 'Cas- 

 tellani's treponemosis/ and Violle the term ' cutaneous spirochae- 

 tosis.' Other local names are ' gat too ' (West Coast of Africa), 

 ' dubi ' (Gold Coast), ' framosi ' (Calabar), ' ab oukine ' (Gaboon), 

 * nkoulou,' 'tetia' (Congo Coast), * momba ' (Angola), ' parangi ' 

 (Ceylon), * buena ' (Burma), ' puru ' (Borneo, Federated Malay 

 States), ' patek ' (Dutch Indies), 'tonga' (New Caledonia and 

 Loyalty Islands), 'coco' (Fiji), ' tona ' (Tonga Island), ' lupani 

 tono ' (Samoa), * galis pateros ' (some parts of the Philippine 

 Islands), ' ki-mo ' (French Indo-China). 



Definition. — ^A tropical specific infectious and contagious disease 

 caused by Treponema pertenue Castellani, and characterized by a 

 framboesiform granulomatous eruption. 



History. — It has been suggested by Hume, Adams, and others that 

 framboesia was the disease which afflicted the Israelites during their 

 emigration from Egypt, and that therefore the term ' saraat ' 

 in the thirteenth chapter of Leviticus does not mean leprosy, as 

 usually translated. Ali Abbas and Avicenna, who wrote at the 

 end of the tenth century, mention a disease called ' safat,' or 

 ' sahafati,' with symptoms not unlike those of framboesia; but most 

 authors are of the opinion that the disease referred to by the two 

 Arabian physicians was syphilis. The study of the disease first 

 began to engage the attention of European physicians after the 

 discovery of America. Oviedo y Valdez (1478-1557) describes it in 

 his work, ' Historia General e Natural de las Indias.' Piso (1648) 

 refers to the malady in his work, ' De Medicina Brasiliensis. ' Roche- 

 fort (1656), Raymond Breton (1665), and Labat (1694), report it 

 from the West Indies, stating that it occurs frequently among the 



1535 



