The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1905-03-23

APPENDIX IS MADE USEFUL
FUNNEL FOR MEDICINE
FOR Philippine FEVER.
Experiments Made BY the Army Doc
tors Prove Successful New Cure
for Dysentery.

ID. c., barracks hospital where
it has met with such success as to
warrant the belief that the dread ORR
entail disease may be stamped out.
Experiments have been conducted for
some time past which have been
watched with interest by the medical
profession of the entire world.
The feature of the cure marks a de-
cided advance in medical science, while
from the point of view of the layman
it has at last, established a use for the
much-despised appendix of the human
body, the utility of which has long
men of science. In the experiment
now being conducted upon a soldier at
the barracks, suffering from an acute
attack of Philippine fever, the appen-
dix has been utilized as an artificial
entrance into the abdomen, thus per-
hitting the injection of a strong
medicine through a hitherto unused
| channel.
Major Surgeon w. c.. Borden, in
charge of the Washington barracks
hospital has conducted the success
| full case. One patient has been cured,
! and preparations are being made to
extend the treatment further, while il
is believed that many of the cases in
the insular possessions now regarded
| as incurable will be reached by the
ed throughout the army.
Some time ago Sergeant Mould, of
the engineer corps, recently returned
from the Philippines, was taken to
Washington for treatment He was at
the point of DEATH and mis- life was
despaired of by the surgeons at the
army hospital in that city, under whose
| treatment he was placed. The sick
man was suffering from an aggravated
attack of Philippine dysentery, or
acute malarial fever, of more than a
years standing. The disease, which
is slow in it's nature, had reduced the
soldier to a skeleton. Ordinary meth
DDS of affecting a cure proved unavail-
ing. 1t was then that the new scien-
tific treatment was tried.
Under the direction of Major Bor-
den, the mans appendix was reached
by an incision through the walls of
the abdomen. A delicate operation was
performed, the appendix drawn
through the opening of the body and
stretched there and was allowed to
heal outside Of the abdominal wall.
1t formed funnel, part Of the in
testinal system, through which there
was a perfect entrance into the inte-
rior of the lower portion of the body.
Using the appendix much as though
it had been a funnel, the surgeon
then flushed the patient with a quinine
solution, pouring the medicine
| through the appendix. The quinine
reached the vital organs affected with
out passing through the stomach. The
peforations in the bowels caused by
the disease were quickly healed, and
the stomach of the patient, usually
weakened critically by the use Of
strong drugs, was Of course, unaffect-
ed, as it was required to play no part
in the operation.
After treatment lasting for a few
n WI no
confined to his bed, was conva1ascent,
and is now able to walk, although the
cure has not been entirely completed
The mans appendix still remains out
side of his body, where it has healed
in a most unnatural position, but the
operation of replacing it when ne is
pronounced we'll will be a simple one.
The operation has been under close
study by army surgeons in Washing
ton and it's effect upon the treatment
of the peculiar tropical disease of the
Philippines will be great when the
exact outcome is known. That it will
be an entirely successful cure is not
doubted.
This case is said to be the first of
it's kind on record, and is believed to
be the only occasion for the use of
| the appendix in this manner. The
idea is said to be the invention of DR..
Wyetn, of New York, who theoretical
ly discovered it two years ago. al
though he never put mis- theory into
practice. 1t was declared by this
well known physician that the bowels
of patients suffering from dysentery,
a disease difficult to reach by local
treatment, might be reached through
the organ apparently without purpose
| in the human body.
| Dysentery has been, since the Amer
| lean occupation, the one disease with
which the United States authorities
have been practically hopeless in
coping. Thousands Of American SOL