ELEPHANTIASIS ARABUM, or fefe (pronounced fāfā), as the natives of Eastern Polynesia call it, is an ailment peculiar to the tropics. It is sometimes classed as one variety of leprosy, tho quite different in many respects from the disease generally recognized as such. Elephantiasis affects persons of mature years, and seems to find a larger proportion of victims within the ranks of the men than among the women. We have never observed a case among the youth or children.
A Native of the Society Islands Afflicted with Elephantiasis in Left Leg and Right Arm.
Some localities within the tropics are comparatively free from the inroads of this disease, while other islands and districts are grievously afflicted thereby. Where rum rules with most despotic hand is the best field for the germs of elephantiasis, which is probably due to the powers of resistance being reduced by the alcohol. Nearly one-third of the male population of Moorea are afflicted with this disease. As we have before remarked, the Mooreans are mostly drunkards.
All the extremities are bloated and enlarged by elephantiasis in various patients, tho seldom does one meet a man who has more than two of his members afflicted perceptibly by it. These sufferers are the more to be pitied as the abnormal increase of tissue is generally accompanied by weakened memory. The most distorted sufferer from this disease that I ever met lay on the grass a hopeless idiot.
A Native of Aitutaki, Cook Islands, Afflicted with Elephantiasis in the Legs.
Many are afflicted with elephantiasis in its various stages for years, and never die of it. Removal to a cooler climate generally gives relief to the foreigner.
The comparative freedom from this ailment enjoyed by those who eat, sleep, and otherwise live like civilized beings, leads us to conclude that this gross affliction is a low order of germ or parasitic life that can not harm the Christian who is educated to take proper care of the body.
Damp and unhealthful surroundings, poor food, and habits of uncleanliness are all conducive to elephantiasis, if not directly responsible for it.
"They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick," said the Master. Many of these sufferers are quite away from the beaten path of the physician, and, tho soul and body are sick, no one comes to relieve the heartache or place the balm of healing upon their sores.
Has not the time now come when the words should meet their fulfilment: "Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks" (Jer. 16:16)?
