Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1902-11-15
FINE FLOUR AND APPENDICITIS.
A Physician Says Modern Milling In
ResDonsible For the Disease.

Responsible For the Disease.
Changes in milling processes are res
ponsible for appendicitis, according to
a physician who has been In the prac-
tice of medicine for so years and who
has observed the spread Of the dis
ease. This physician, DR.. H. c. How
ard. Of Champaign, ILL.,, asserts that
until the trade demand for exceedingly
white flour changed the methods OF
grinding wheat there was no appended
tis.
To prove this assertion the physician
points to the fact that where coarse
breads are used the disease Is un-
known, but that as soon as the fine
breadstuffs are introduced appendicitis
comes along as g. sequence. BY this
reasoning it is shown that the people
of agricultural communities who secur-
ed their flour from small mills lid not
have the disease until the small mills
were crowded out by the large ones and
fine white flour supplanted the coarse.
Then the Negroes Of the south 80 long
as they ate corn bread were free from
the disease, but when the new process
flour began to be used the disease came
among them. The same results at
tended the departure of the German
folks from their coarse bread to the
refined flour.
IT can remember that prior to about
1876" said DR.. Howard, there was lit
tie or none Of the ailment among the
people. In rs years Of practice among
the people before, that time I do not
think I saw more than 40 cases Of ap-
pendicitis. Now they are common.
Large and extended change in the
diet of people has contributed to this.
For example, about the date mentioned
there began to be a general change
from the old method Of grinding grain
to the present method Of roller mills
and excessively fine bolting cloths.
This plan of milling began first in the
large cities, and appendicitis began to
increase first there. Later the new pro-
cess crowded out the small mills In the
country, and the people could not get
flour made by the old processes. They
bought products of the large milling
establishments, and then the farmers
began to have appendicitis
"Still the Negroes of the south did
not have it, but in time they began to
get away from their plain corn bread,
and they, too, began to have appendi-
citis. So it goes. They did not have
appendicitis in Germany until they be-
gan to eat our fine white -four and put
In the new process Of milling after our
fashion. Now they have appendicitis
in Germany, just as we do.
Experienced millers will tell You
that the fine flour is a less desirable
flour than that made by the old pro-
cess, but the trade demands 1t chiefly
on account of it's whiteness. On ac-
count Of it's indigestibility the disar-
rangement Of the digestive organs OF
the people eating it has greatly in
creased. The prime cause Of appendi-
citis Is found in this disarrangement.
Quite small children have it.
know one boy who has had 13 we'll
defined attacks Of the disease and came
out of all Of them without surgical
operations. He changed his food to
corn bread and mush, with coarse
breads in general, vegetables, little
meat and some fruit, and he has taken
on flesh and has not had symptom Of
the disease for three years. ."-Chicago
Tribune.