The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1902-11-06
A NEW THEORY,

almost any man can have one of his
own. When a fellow runs out of some
thing to talk about he discovers or ill.,
vents a theory. and If there Is nothing
else for a subject he can easily get on
the trail of some Of our many phys
ical ailments and spread himself. There
are so many diseases. and so many diff
ferent forms of disease, and so many new
ones are popping up that almost any man
can find room for a theory.
Just now appendicitis is to the fore
and we have much said and written about
1t. Just what the vermiform appendix is
for is one of the mysteries that the smart
men are not solving. What use 1t is to
US, of for what 1t is intended, are con-
undrums If 1t Is a survival of the days
before we became human why does 1t
cling to us? Why didn't it disappear,
along with four feet, prehensile tails and
other attachments of our animal state?
No doctor or other scientist seems able
to tell what use 1t is in our present stage
of development, or why 1t still forms part
of our internal economy. Its principal
use nowadays is to build theories on
and to form or offer an excuse for
surgical operation.
Appendicitis is an affection of the vermi-
form appendix. but why Is it so much
more common now than it formerly was?
Or, is it a fact that 1t is more common,
or only that people used to have 1t and
didn't know it? Advance in medical and
surgical knowledge has been wonderful,
and it may be that many people had APP
pendicitis in old times and didn't know
it. The sufferer and the doctors knew
there was something wrong, but couldn't
| give it a local habitation and name.
Like as not they called it gripes In
many cases, no doubt, ignorance was bliss,
| for it saved the patient from the knife,
| 1t is not very uncommon to read of a
case where an operation for appendicitis
has been performed only to find out that
! the worm attachment was not In any way
affected. The best of doctors can't always
tell just what is going on inside us.
In looking about for an explanation of
| the frequency of this disease of late days
we note that an Illinois physician, one
DR.. Howard. has fallen on new one,
He attributes it to the substitution of the
| fine -four now almost universally used in
place of the coarser flour and the com
meal on which people lived up to rece mt
period. In an exchange, the LINE of
which has escaped us. we find it thus set
forth:
Up to 1870 cases of this trouble were
exceedingly rare and he asserts that the
| modern process of milling very white fine
| flour. which takes from the grain nearly
| all the phosphates and leaves only starch
| and gluten Is chiefly responsible for the
| disease. He asserts that wherever a
| community has abandoned the old Cd
| fashioned coarse fours appendicitis has
very soon made it's appearance, the latest
| illustration being among the negroes of
| the South who. while their broad was
solely corn -four, did not know what the
| disease was.
/ Now. without trenching on the domain
of the medical man. and without under
taking to harmonic cause and effect in
this particular instance, we feel free to
| say that the difference in the way flour
is manufactured from the former way
is very decided and material one and
that it mus. affect the human family is
hardly to be controverted. In the old
time mills the finest flour that was made
contained a considerable portion of the
bran or outer portion of the wheat grains,
and this outer portion OF the grain con-
tains most of the heterogeneous quality of
wheat. In the modern processes of mill
ing the fine flour is principally starch
Just what effect that has on the human
system is a matter about which there is
much difference of opinion, but there
seems to be no reason to doubt that the
| old kind Of -four contained more strength
giving property. and was better for the
digestion than the finer -four now almost
universally used If time and observa-
ton shall prove that DR.. Towards theory
| is correct what effect will it have on the
process of milling? None, We predict The
advantages OF the old style flour over the
new have been so often discussed ant
set forth that there seems little NOR,
| to be said. The world-the civlizeC
world, at least-insists on the finest anl
whitest bread. and even if it shall bt
proven that it causes appendicitis it will
probably have no effect. But the new
theory is an interesting one, at all events
-Ss-----
SnPb "a