Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1891-09-18
1T is MANS DEATH TRAP.
FART OF THE HUMAN STRUCTURE
THAT OFTEN GOES WRONG.

THAT OFTEN GOES WRONG.
a Cal de Sac in Which Indigestible RIM
nants Lodge and Sometimes Cause
Death-In Time the Human Animal
Will Develop Away from 1t Altogether.
With the appearance of cherries, plums,
raspberries and the like upon the fruit
stands there arises in the minds of all per-
sons, not especially parents, a morbid in
terest IN the appendix vermiformis or
vermiform appendix. This interest al
most dies out during the winter, when the
vermlform appendix has only oranges and
collar buttons and shirt studs to bring it
into prominence. But with the coming of
the fruits with small seeds the vermiform
appendix becomes a stock topic of CONVEX
satlon, and lays low many a victim among
the budding male youth of the land.
Nobody can be quite certain that he has
vermlfsrsc appendix unlesssa1 gets,
thing the matter with it. For the doctors
have dissected people in whom there was
no trace of a vermiform appendix. This
however, is rare, and most of the human
beings who read this article may have the
| proud assurance that it tells of something
in which they have part.
Those who hold to the evolution theory
have no difficulty in accounting for the
yermiform appendix. They say that it
| belongs to class of rudimentary struc-
| lures left in the bodies of all organized
things by the process of evolution. There
are certain muscles in the human body
which have no use at all, but simply stand
as remnants of muscles which are devel-
oped and are useful in the bodies of some
animals of the lower orders. The human
animal has developed into an environment
| in which these muscles are no longer use
| full. In the course of ages they will dis
appear Now they are still represented in
shriveled and innocuous state.
USELESS AND HARMFUL.
So it is with the vermiform appendix, ac
cording to the evolution scientists. There
was time when it was developed and had
an important place in the economy of life. 1t
still exists in some of the lower animals in
its complete form. In the human animal
| it is shrveled and is no longer useful.
| On this last point all are agreed. 1t does
no good. It does much harm. In fact, it
never does anything unless it does harm.
That is why some pathologist few years
ago gave it the name of ''death trap" And
death trap it is now called when the
doctors descend from the mist enshrined
heights of Latin and Greek medical terms
to the ordinary language of laymen.
The death trap" is small, worm
shaped tube, the opening of which is of
about the diameter Of a goose quill. 1t is
of variable length in different human be-
ings. Sometimes it is six inches long. land
sometimes it is but three inches long 1t
extends from the cBcum, which is the
technical name for the upper end of the
large intestine. 1t leaves the cmcum at a
point near the valve through which the
contents of the small intestine are dis
charged into the large intestine Over its
mouth there is sometimes valve and
sometimes not. Generally the valve is i'm
perfect and only adds to the danger of the
death trap"
1t is found in most men and animals, eX-
cept the orang outang and the wombat.
Sometimes it curves directly back from the
c8cum. Again it winds around the ilium,
and again it extends along the colon.
10 grasp fully the danger of this useless
tube, which is blunt at its other end, some
explanation about the cecum is necessary.
The cBcum is sort of expansion of the
upper end of the small intestine. 1t is
about two inches in diameter, and receives
the discharge of the same intestine. There
the stomach lodges in the cBcum on it's
way out of the system. AS the opening to
the cul de sac, known as the death trap"
is just there, some Of this undigested mat
ter may enter the death trap" and may
remain there.
If you can imagine the stomach as being
no longer useful and shriveling up from
inactivity, that part of it which lies above
the valves which open from the sesophagus
would form such a cul de sac. This is
what has happened to the csecum. Part of
it has shriveled and the vermiform appen-
dix is the result.
WHERE THE DANGER LIES
When the indigestible remnant of the
food has entered the cBcum from the
small intestines it stops there for little
while and then passes on. But the csecum
is sort of stagnant reservoir. Now the
digestive apparatus of a healthy person
may be strong enough to push from the
stomach and from the small intestines not
only all indigestible matter, but also all
germs of disease, all dangerous microbes
which may have entered at the mouth
with the food. But here in the c8cum
they stop for moment.
The mouth of the death trap is open,
and through unusual pressure or through
an accidentally favorable position of the
vermiform appendix these germs or a part
of this indigestible matter may enter the
vermiform appendix
The yermiform appendix is lined with a
mucous membrane, but it differs from the
rest OF the intestinal canal in having only
few very feeble muscles. 1t is therefore
unable to eject anything that may enter it.
Say that an orange or cherry seed is pass
fho ctayo yyban fhiS canal 10
constipated 1t may be pushed into this
cul de sac, to remain there never to leave
until the surgeons knife reaches it.
And, staying there It may do no harm.
A SAG may be formed about it, and it may
| even do good in preventing anything else
from passing up into the death trap. But
again it may cause death. For an inflam-
nation may set up about it and commune
cate to the cBcum and to all the other adj
| iacent parts. Or it may set to work to
push itself out with the aid of this ulcera-
| ton, and may penetrate the wall of the ap-
| pendix and produce peritonitis and death.
To this form Of danger boys between ten
and twenty years seem to be most liable,
In younger boys or in men and in all fe-
males the danger is not SO great because of
the different formations of the appendix.
| But seeds are not the only dangers, or
even bits of foreign substances, such as
pins. needles. buttons and SO on. The
germs which have been mentioned form the
most serious danger. Several high medi
cal authorities, writing on the appendix,
have said that its part in the causing of
disease and death has been much neglected,
and one German writer calls attention to
the fact that in his own experience of 300
bodies examined every third body showed
traces of present or past Inflammation of
the appendix, while per cent. showed
present Inflammation. Other observers
have found the percentage even greater
New York Sun.