The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1903-01-09
County Medical Society Meeting.


The annual meeting of the Shiawassee
County Medical Society was held al
Hotel Wildermuth ON Tuesday last.
There were twenty three members in at.
tendance besides several visitors from
other societies. The officers for the en-.
suing year were elected; the same
officers being reelected as their previous
term had been 80 short DIR. A. M.
Hume was elected as delegate to the
State Medical Society.
Some work was done in readjustine
the fee bill. DIR. Angus Mclean, of De-
troit, read a paper on Appendicitis. He
exhibited a chart showing the various
stages of the disease from the catarrhal
to the necrosed condition with result.
ing abcesses. His paper was markedly
conservative so far as surgical interior.
ence was concerned in comparison with
that of many other surgical writers and
operators He followed very closely
the line of treatment laid down by
Ochsner, of Chicago. If the case is not
seen within the first thirty-six hours it
is better as a rule to treat those patients
incidentally and recommend an opera
tion after they are entirely over the at
tack. He believes in lavage of the
stomach, absolute rest for the intestines,
frequent saline douches and rectal feed
ing. If an abcess be formed, he evacu-
ates the contents of the abcess and puts
in a drainage tube. He thinks much
harm is done by indiscriminate opera
tions as oftentimes the mortality is
frightful. In the very early stages the
operation properly performed yields a
mortality of less than one per cent, the
interval operation about four per cent,
but where all are operated upon indis-
criminately the mortality ranges from
fifteen to eighty per cent. No denying
the fact that many of these cases get
permanently well without operations.
1t is often matter of nice Judgment
to decide what course to pursue. He
could not concur in the teachings of DR..
Beaver, of Philadelphia, viz. that every
patient with pain in their bowels should
be cut open. The paper was very favor
ably received and discussed. DR.. Phip-
pen said he was much pleased with the
paper. 1t covered the ground very
thoroughly and he saw little in it from
which to dissent. He was sorry that
more had not been said about the post
operative treatment. DIR. Harper told
how he managed his depended
upon rectal feeding; keeping the stomach
at rest; used no opiates for pain but de-
pended on strychnia and hyoscyamime.
DR.. Gillian, of Ovid, expressed himself
as well pleased with the conservatism of
the paper and agreed with its teachings
in the main. He believed however in
giving saline cathartic in the begin
ming of the attack and was satisfied that
he had over and over again beneficial
results following their action. DR..
Campbell was better satisfied with the
treatment recommended by Ochsner, of
Chicago, than any other. 1t is more
more sensible and gave
b otter results. He would use salines in
the beginning of the attack; use NOR
phine hypodermically for pain, put on an
ice pack and give lavage. The older
physicians could all bear testimony that
many of these cases got well without
surgical interference. Dr. Hume stated
that he also knew of many recoveries
without surgical treatment. He. believed
in the interval treatment, but found it
difficult to persuade person to submit
to it after the attack was over
At 6:3Op. m. the physicians met in the
dining room and sat down to most en-
joyable banquet. After the table was
cleared Dr. Lamb acted in the capacity
of toast master and toasts were respond
ed to by Drs. Ward, A. L. Bailey, Nc
Lean, Smith, Mccormick, Eldred and
Hume.