The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-11-17
TO TREAT APPENDICITIS
A PLAN RECOMMENDED WHICH DIFF
FERs FROM SYSTEM IN VOGUE.
Abstinence from Food, Massage and
Special Manipulation Are Chief
Features Of n Treatment.

T. many OF WHICH result OledSLEDlSle . III
the universal feeling OF dread concerning
II, present an interesting subject for study.
I call appendicitis a comparatively new
disease because. while it has long been
known tina the Judgment Of a seed or other
hard substance in the vermiform appendix
might cause Inflammation and end in death,
yet death from this cause. until within a
recent period. was so rare as 10 create
little or no popular apprehension on the
subject Every adult reader Of this article
can remember when appendicitis was an
unknown word and when grape seeds
might be swallowed without any haunting
fear of evil consequences. while now every
day adds its quota TO the long death roll,
and numerous operations are chronicled in
almost every issue Of the daily press. A
thoughtful person cannot refrain from ask
ing the question. "Why was it not always
so7' Why should such a disease as appen-
dicitis be more frequent or more fatal now
than formerly? We can understand. TO
some extent, how new contagious diseases
may be developed by changing conditions,
but the sudden increase Of a purely me-
chanical affection like the disease in ques-
ton can only be accounted for on one OF
the following suppositions:
First. that the medical profession I'm the
past has been mistaken in diagnosis. and
when their patients died Of appendicitis
has ascribed the fatal result TO some other
cause; second, that the vermiform appen-
dices OF the present generation, by some
structural change. have developed a pecu-
liar liability TO the difficulty; or, third,
that the trouble is with the treatment.
We find that the first supposition is not
likely TO be true because the disease does
not appear to present special difficulties in
diagnosis. but to have clearly marked and
peculiar symptoms: furthermore the cause
Of death would be certainly apparent on
post-mortem examinations. and we know
that for a quarter of a century or more
every mysterious death and nearly every
case where doubt existed as to the cause
OF death, has been followed by an autopsy.
Clearly, with the ~weIl-known eagerness of
the profession for post-mOrtem Xamina
tions, it would not have been possible for
people TO die of appendicitis in anything
like the present ratio without the cause
becoming apparent TO the physicians. 1t is
plainly evident that the death rate from
this disease in the more remote past can
not have been even approximate to that
of the past five years.
The second supposition is hardly worthy
OF consideration. There does not appear to
be any change in the structural formation
of the parts concerned; neither does It APP
pear that there is any change in the habits
OF the people which may account for the
rapid increase in fatality from this cause.
We come. then. TO a consideration of the
third suppOsjtion, that the increase in IA
tally is due to a difference in treatment.
LACK OF FAITH IN DRUGS.
= who studies conditions and
Id OF medical science
two prominent facts
in the present situation-hrst that among
the laity. and apparently in the profession
also. there is a decreasing faith in the ef-
hcacy OF drugs as a healing power, and
second, that there is an increasing tend
enoy 10 rely on drugs in actual practice.
This seeming paradox is not hard to ex-
plain. Many eminent practitioners of medi-
cine have in recent times avOwed their dis
belief in the protency of drugs as a cura-
tive agency, thereby greatly weakening the
faith Of the public and of the profession,
while at the same time the rise of mental
healing. of osteopathy and Of the Dewey
school OF hygienic science have placed the
profession on the defensive with regard to
the use of drugs at all in medical practice.
liz zA0NAA5 0L-DOSAAAOA OA AAC part Va
the public to turn TO drugless systems
and the rise and success of these sO-called
Irregular schools of healing art have
led the regular practitioners to insist more
strongly on the efficacy of their own meth
DDS and remedies. and so we have the
anomalous spectacle of a profession with
q declining faith in the power of it's own
remedies and an increasing reliance on
those remedies in actual practice. The
absurd extent TO which the microbe theory
of disease has been carried has also tended
10 increase experimentation in the line of
drug medication. in the effort TO find some
germ-killer which shall destroy the micro
organisms supposed to cause nearly all
known ills. The attempt to build a science
OF healing almost wholly upon the germ
theory has led the medical profession to
discard all simple and natural methods for
the micrObe-killing dose and the hypoder-
mic needle, with the surgeons knife as a
last resort. The use OF home remedies and
"old women's methods have fallen into
Increasing discredit as being u~nscientiic
or unprofessional.
In seeking a cure for appendicitis we
must bear in mind that the trouble, in the
beginning. is nearly always mechanical.
A fruit seed or other hard substance lodg-
ing in the appendix causes the infamma-
ton. with resulting suppuration and tend
ency TO ahscess. Clearly something more
than insect poison or serum injections are
required in a disease OF this character. In
our grandmothers' days. on the first symp-
tom OF pain and uneasiness in the alb
dominal region. hot lamentations were APP
piled. the colon was relieved of its con-
tents by the use of injections, and if the
case continued serious an emulsion of lard
and turpentine was placed upon the abdo-
men. and. with very little fear as to re-
suits, a majority of the patients recovered,
never dreaming that they had been in the
grasp Of a disease that was TO become
one of tho pet bugaboOs of modern science.
This treatment would not do at all for the
unscjentifc science of medicine as it is
to-day. We care less for the cure of dis
ease than for the bolstering up Of our pet
theories. and the modern physician goes
into the sickroom, not TO study phenomena
and reason from effect to cause, but 10 fit
a certain theory OF treatment to the case,
regardless OF the indications. Not one
single theory OF medicine has reached the
. pojnt OF demonstration as a truth. The
ground is being holly contested on every
- - +ha nracffffOnerS of each