The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-03-16

N FTER being the sport of para
W1z graphers and a target for dog
gerel poets 10 these many moons
the appendix has come to its own again.
A use has been found for that part Of
our anatomy which has heretofore been
regarded as most useless which promises
to revolutionize the treatment of tropi-
cal dysentery. The medical fraternity
and the press fraternity must doff the hat
to our humble appendix. We might have
known all the time that 1t was not put
In our bodies by an all-wise providence
merely to cause trouble and enable sur
geons TO wax opulent by cutting it out
at fancy prices. and we might have
known also that if the days Of its use
fulness had passed the appendix would
have disappeared just as our long ears
and our prehistoric caudal appendages
have departed hence. 1t was rather
interesting surgical operation which de-
termined the appendices right to exist A
soldier returned from the Philippines
with an aggravated case of tropical dys-
EMERY which threatened to prove fatal
1t was then that his appendix came in
handy. Surgeons took out the member,
extended it and used the sac as funnel
TO flush the patients system with a
quinine solution. The man. stomach did
not figure in the operation and now he
Is better His appendix is still on the out
side of his body, but when he is strong
enough 1t will be put back where 1t be-
longs. Thus has science cutely made a
discovery which renders the appendix re-
spectacle and esteemed of all men.
| Two learned men, Prof. Herbert Gardi-
ner Lord of the University of Columbia
and Prof William ]. Kirby of the Cath
Ollie University of America can find no
reason for saying that gambling in itself
is wrong. The rather remarkable views
of Professor Kirby follow:
Gambling is not simply a game OF
| chance, for chance is present in most
business transactions. Gambling is not
merely the desire for gain, it is not mere
ly means of excitement. The constitu-
tional gambler is the man who desires
only gain at play as a means to enable
him to play again.
ut may seem strange for me to say so
as professor of ethics. but have never
nit me to say gambling is wrong. hold
no brief for gambling. I do not gamble
myself. 1t is argued that gambling is
wrong because it is waste. On the con-
trary, there Is no destruction of wealth
in gambling.
Properly done, gambling is not dis
sipation, but a recreation. In the rush
of business or in the humdrum of life
gambling may be just the best stimulant
for some men and women.
ut is charged that gambling is strictly
| anti-soeial Observation does not show
this Intimate friends play, families play.
Bridge whist, for instance, is positively
social. The winners learn repression of
their triumph and the losers are pleased
with themselves at their ability to lose
we'll"
This argument advanced by Professor
| Kirby is another example of the curious
manner in which some of our "educa-
tors" think. After centuries of preach
ing which has led us to believe that
| a game of chance is the game OF the
devil forth comes pedagogue who
says 1t Is the benficent. mildly stimulating
recreation that some men and women
need. There is just suspicion that these
two sayants. who apparently know as
much about gambling as a hog does
about Latin, are trying to emulate the
example of their Chicago eontempora-
ries. Be that as it may, If a good old
rcvivalist of the school that shouts loud