Waterbury evening Democrat., 1893-08-25
IT IS A USELESS GIFT.
THE VERMIFoRM APPENDIX CAUSES
 SERIOUS TROUBLE.

nat OESAh.
 Will the coming man have vermi- form appendix? Who has not heard of | that troublesome little pouch in the ab- | dominal regions which serves no good purpose. but is responsible for thousands of deaths each year?
 Emmons Blaine, Senator Hagan and hundreds of other persons of prominence had trouble with the vermiform appen- dix-and they died.
 Now science is asking in all serious ness whether the vermiform appendix shall be allowed to exist; whether it shall not be removed entirely before it has the opportunity to poison and destroy.
 Professor B. G. Wilder has said flatly that children should be relieved of the verniform appendix, just as they are vaccinated. But other students in this new field are not yet ready to pronounce in favor of so radical a scheme.
 Physicians have known for centuries that the vermiform appendix existed, but it was not until 1SSS-not until five years ago-that any one of the profession had the daring to make an incision into the abdominal cavity and remove this rank offender against the laws of health. The attack on the vermiform appendix is but five years old, but it is being pros ecuted with remarkable vigor in New York city, where it originated, and the reason Is not far to seek. It is simply be- | cause physicians feel sure that they have evidence that appendicitis. as disease of the vermiform appendix is named. causes more deaths every year than consump- tion. the long acknowledged chief among fatal diseases.
 The appendix vermiformis in normal | condition is about the size of lead pen cil and about inches long. It is very | well shown in a specimen which was re moved at a clinical lecture at the Post | graduate Medical school on Jnn. IS. | This appendix had ulcerated and in | creased ill size somewhat. but gave a very fair idea of the part. When perfectly normal, it so compares with an ordinary | lead pencil that it is most frequently de- scribed as like it. It is a pencil that writes only death warrants.
 Even today very few physicians out side of New York city have any accurate
 knowledge of appendicitis or would un- dertake an operation for the removal of
 the appendix. So entirely is the discov-
 cry of the disease and the prG per method
 of treating 1t an American development
 of knowledge and practice that among
 scientists of other countries today ap- pendicitis is known as "the American
 disease"
 | Since the recent discoveries removals
 of the cause of all the trouble have been
 very frequent. One general practitioner
 has had IS such cases within a year.
 Speaking in the light of recent re
 search, it seems safe to say that appen-
 dicitis is far more prevalent than con l sumption, and ill just that proportion causes more deaths, the chief difference
 being that the cause or seat of appendici-
 tis may be removed bodily with success
 in most cases, and success means restor-
 ation To perfect health.
 The removal of the vermiform appen-
 dix in the early stages of an attack of | appendicitis is now held to be one of the
 safest of surgical operations. while such an operation. when the case has come to near its last and fatal stage, is one of the > most desperate. The sad case of Senator s Hagan is one in point. He had long de < sired an operation, but it had been de. , layoi until too late for an assured sue. cess.
 And now, after all these facts are re : cited, rccurs the question of whether the l coming man will have a vermiform ap l pendiX. It is not meant by this to in l quire whether the coming man will have . | his appendix slain lest it slay him. 4 l much wider question is indicated. Tn,
 number of appendices removed in thii
 city since the discovery that such an op eration could be safely performed is very O great, all things considered. One gen {, eral practitioner. not a surgical special a ist. told the representative of The World '. that he had removed 100 appendices il '. two years. Possibly 1000 appendixe i, have been removed since the first opera II ton of this sort in 1888, and most O these in the past three years.
 $ What follows? If such rate is to b a maintained, there will soon be a yer, y large proportion of the people of Nev
 York city who have eliminated thei vermiform appendices, and we are gla
 of it.
 Will the children of these people
 likewise possessed of vermiform apper ;. dixes? Undoubtedly. But should tn
 eliminating process be continued for few generations. how long would it b n before this useless and dangerous, dt t generate and rudimentary portion of th l. body Is permanently bred out of exis 2 encr?-New York World.