Possibly the most interesting of the examples of skin-anomaly was the "elephant-man" of London. His real name was Merrick. He was born at Leicester, and gave an elaborate account of shock experienced by his mother shortly before his birth, when she was knocked down by an elephant at a circus; to this circumstance he attributed his unfortunate condition. He derived his name from a proboscis-like projection of his nose and lips, together with a peculiar deformity of the forehead. He was victimized by showmen during his early life, and for a time was shown in Whitechapel Road, where his exhibition was stopped by the police. He was afterward shown in Belgium, and was there plundered of all his savings. The gruesome spectacle he presented ostracized him from the pleasures of friendship and society, and sometimes interfered with his travels. On one occasion a steamboat captain refused to take him as a passenger. Treves exhibited him twice before the Pathological Society of London. His affection was not elephantiasis, but a complication of congenital hypertrophy of certain bones and pachydermatocele and papilloma of the skin.
From his youth he suffered from a disease of the left hip-joint.
The papillary masses developed on the skin of the back, buttock, and occiput. In the right pectoral and posterior aspect of the right axillary region, and over the buttocks, the affected skin hung in heavy pendulous flaps. His left arm was free from disease. His head grew so heavy that at length he had great difficulty in holding it up. He slept in a sitting or crouching position, with his hands clasped over his legs, and his head on his knees. If he lay down flat, the heavy head showed a tendency to fall back and produce a sense of suffocation. For a long time he was an inmate of the London Hospital, where special quarters were provided for him, and it was there that he was found dead, April 11, 1890; while in bed his ponderous head had fallen backward and dislocated his neck.
Ainhum may be defined as a pathologic process, the ultimate result of which is a spontaneous amputation of the little toe. It is confined almost exclusively to negroes, chiefly males, and of African descent. In Brazil it is called "ainham" or "quigila.""Ainham" literally means to saw, and is doubtless a colloquial name derived from a supposed slow, sawing process. The Hindoo name for it is "sukha pakla," meaning dry suppuration.
In 1866 da Silva Lima of Bahia, at the Misericordia Hospital, gave the first reports of this curious disease, and for quite a period it was supposed to be confined to Brazilian territory.
Since then, however, it has been reported from nearly every quarter of the globe. Relative to its geographic distribution, Pyle states that da Silva Lima and Seixas of Bahia have reported numerous cases in Brazil, as have Figueredo, Pereira, Pirovano, Alpin, and Guimares. Toppin reports it in Pernambuco. Mr. Milton reports a case from Cairo, and Dr. Creswell at Suez, both in slaves. E. A. G. Doyle reports several cases at the Fernando Hospital, Trinidad. Digby reports its prevalence on the west coast of Africa, particularly among a race of negroes called Krumens. Messum reports it in the South African Republic, and speaks of its prevalence among the Kaffirs. Eyles reports it on the Gold Coast. It has also been seen in Algiers and Madagascar.
Through the able efforts of Her Majesty's surgeons in India the presence of ainhum has been shown in India, and considerable investigation made as to its etiology, pathologic histology, etc.
Wise at Dacca, Smyth and Crombie at Calcutta, Henderson at Bombay, and Warden, Sen, Crawford, and Cooper in other portions of Southern India have all rendered assistance in the investigation of ainhum. In China a case has been seen, and British surgeons speak of it as occurring in Ceylon. Von Winckler presents an admirable report of 20 cases at Georgetown, British Guiana. Dr. Potoppidan sends a report of a case in a negress on St. Thomas Island. The disease has several times been observed in Polynesia.
Dr. Hornaday reports a case in a negress from North Carolina, and, curious to relate, Horwitz of Philadelphia and Shepherd of Canada found cases in negroes both of North Carolina antecedents.
Dr. James Evans reports a case in a negro seventy-four years of age, at Darlington, S.C. Dr. R. H. Days of Baton Rouge, La., had a case in a negress, and Dr. J. L. Deslates, also of Louisiana, reports four cases in St. James Parish. Pyle has seen a case in a negress aged fifty years, at the Emergency Hospital in Washington.
So prevalent is the disease in India that Crawford found a case in every 2500 surgical cases at the Indian hospitals. The absence of pain or inconvenience in many instances doubtless keeps the number of cases reported few, and again we must take into consideration the fact that the class of persons afflicted with ainhum are seldom brought in contact with medical men.
The disease usually affects the 5th phalanx at the interphalangeal joint. Cases of the 4th and other phalanges have been reported. Cooper speaks of a young Brahman who lost his left great toe by this process. Crombie speaks of a simultaneous amputation of both fourth toes. Potoppidan reports a similar case in a negress on St. Thomas Island. Sen reports a case in a supernumerary digit in a child, whose father, a Hindoo, lost a toe by ainhum. Eyles reports a case in a negro in whom the second finger was affected. Mirault, at Angiers, speaks of a case in which two fingers were lost in fifteen days, a fact which makes his diagnosis dubious. Beranger-Ferraud has seen all the toes amputated, and there is a wax model by Baretta, Paris, in the Army Medical Museum at Washington, in which all the toes of the right foot have been amputated, and the process is fast ****** progress at the middle third of the leg.
Ainhum is much more common in males than in females; it is, in fact, distinctly rare in the latter. Of von Winckler's 20 cases all were males.