The Colfax chronicle., 1904-05-21
TROLLEY CARS ARE BLAMED
Said to Be the Cause of Increased
Number Of Victims Of
Appendicitis.

"The trolley car is largely responsible
for the alarming increase of appendi-
citis," said DR.. Thomas W. Lauterborl,
of Morristown, N. j., to reporter for
the New York Tribune. DR.. Lauterborn
has made study of this disease and its
characteristics for the last decade, and
believes that he has solved the problem
which has been bothering physicians
and surgeons all over the world for sew
eral years. Continuing, he said:
"You think, perhaps, that when
mention the trolley car as the cause OF
this disease am joking, but it is terri
Bile reality, as can readily show you.
Do not think that electricity or the wires
or the trolley wheels have anything to
do with the disease. 1t is not germ dis
ease, although cases of it have become
so numerous recently as to make it ap-
pear almost epidemic, but that is impos-
sible, because it is not in any sense OF
the word contagious. But the trolley car
has made us lazy. We now ride where
we should walk, and think that appen-
dicitis is almost wholly due to that fact.
Some thousands of ages ago when
the human animal was probably an am
phibian, living in swamps and marshes
along the seacoast, and getting its sus-
tenance from succulent roots and herbs,
the digestive economy was much more
elaborate than at present, the reason be-
ing that the food on which the human
animal at that time lived was such that
it could not be assimilated as readily as
now. 1t had not gone through any OF
the various processes which we now give
to It.
I'VE don't know that the human ami
NAL ever had more than one stomach,
but we are quite sure that the vermiform
appendix, which Is now rudimentary
organ, was ages ago large pouch in
which much of the food was secreted
before being passed into the large intes-
final canal.
'It is just at that point in the body
where it can make the most trouble, be-
cause If the entrance to the vermiform
appendix is not kept tightly closed
small particles of waste can be forced
into it, and there is no means of their
being again forced out That causes ap-
pendicitis, but when a man is active on
his feet, when he is doing considerable
walking, there is no danger of his having
appendicitis, for the reason that the alb
dominal muscles are Kept continually
active, and so are in good working order
all the while. The jolting given to a
mans interior economy when he walks
causes the muscles of the abdomen and
the intestines to continually contract to
Lfset the jar of his step, and thus they
are always in perfect condition. When
the contractile function of intestinal or
gans is operative. the entrance to the
appendix is always closed, hence the in
dividual has no fear of appendicitis.
"On the other hand, when a man be-
gins to take to the trolley car, the steam
car and to the carriage in making his
daily trips, he loses all that jolting which
Is necessary as tonic to the muscular
walls of his abdomen and intestines. So
when we see a man begin to get fabby
and potbellied. We Immediately say that
there is good subject for appendicitis.
"It may be thought that my theory is
wrong. but I'll give you as,one proof of
it the fact that there is little appendicitis
in the country, while the cities and sub
urban towns are scourged with it. II
the human animal wants to conserve his
cf yon OFT RI III 1Aa La L
walk, and let him be careful to keep the
abdominal muscles strong and the intes-
tinal muscles active"