dedicated to Siva, but it contains numerous representations of other
Hindu deities. It has, however, for long been a place not so much of
worship as of archaeological and artistic interest alike to the European
and Hindu traveller. It forms a wonderful monument of antiquity, and
must have been a work of incredible labour. Archaeological authorities
are of opinion that the cave must have been excavated about the 10th
century of the Christian era, if not earlier. The island is much
frequented by the British residents of Bombay; and during his tour in
India in 1875 King Edward VII., then prince of Wales, was entertained
there at a banquet.
ELEPHANTIASIS (_Barbadoes leg_; _Boucnemia_), is a disease dependent on
chronic lymphatic obstruction, and characterized by hypertrophy of the
skin and subcutaneous tissue. Two distinct forms are known, (1)
elephantiasis arabum, due to the development of living parasites,
filaria sanguinis hominis (or filaria Bancrofti), and (2) the
non-filarial form due to lymphatic obstruction from any other cause
whatsoever, as erysipelas, the deposit of tuberculous or cancerous
material in the lymphatic glands, phlegmasia dolens (white leg),
long-continued eczema, &c. The enlargement is limited to a particular
part of the body, generally one, or in rare cases both of the lower
limbs, occasionally the scrotum, one of the labiae or the mammary gland;
far more rarely the face. An attack is usually ushered in by febrile
disturbance (elephantoid fever), the part attacked becoming rapidly
swollen, and the skin tense and red as in erysipelas. The subcutaneous
tissues become firm, infiltrated and hard, pitting only on considerable
pressure. The skin becomes roughened with a network of dilated
lymphatics, and vesicles and bullae may form, discharging a chyle-like
fluid when broken (lymphorrhoea). In a later stage still the skin may be
coarse and wart-like, and there is a great tendency for varicose ulcers
to form. At the end of a variable time enlargement ceases to take place,
and the disease enters a quiescent state: but recrudescences occur at
irregular intervals, always ushered in by elephantoid fever. At the end
of some years the attacks of fever cease, and the affected part remains
permanently swollen. The only difference in the history of the two forms
of the disease lies in the fact that the non-filarial form progresses
steadily, until either the underlying condition is cured, or in the case
of cancer, &c., brings about a fatal issue. The elephantiasis due to
filaria is spread by the agency of mosquitoes, in whose bodies the
intermediate stage is passed. The dead mosquito falls upon the water,
which thus becomes infected, and hence the ova reach the human stomach.
The young worm develops, bores through the gastric mucous membrane and
finally becomes lodged in the lymphatics, usually of one or other of the
extremities. A large number of embryonic filariae are produced. Some
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