Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1905-02-10
|lA 70 D(CITlS'
Gauss i. al. 4 Prevention q
the Prevailing Dis
:



leading medical men Of England, has
the following article ON tho cause
and prevention Of appendicitis, in the
Nineteenth Century magazine:
With q large experience, upward !
Of half century. of London practice,
I can testify that this disease was
very infrequent until about twenty
years ago. There were many cases of
peritonitis (*which would now be
called appendicitis most of which
recovered under careful treatment: a
hot bath, a warm bed, hot fomenta-
tions, q dose or Two of castor oil,
copious injections of hot water, no
solid food for four or five days,
but abundance of fluid nourishment
such as arrowroot, barleywater. milk.
Whence. then, has come this prevail
ence of appendicitis.
In our search we must weigh the
evidence for each of the apparent
causes Oft
HOW THE DISEASE IS DEvEL-
OPED.
First-Chill is very often the i'm
mediate cause, yet chil]s were fire.
quent In the years before the advent
of appendicitis. More care has been
taken with warm clothing for many
years past, wooden underclothing TAX
ing the place of cotton, hot water
drinking rather than cold. Getting
the feet wet from various games on the
grass may partly account for it's
prevalence, also for it's greater fire.
quency in males than In females
than young persons between
: the ages of ten and twenty
, than at other ages. Young people are
often thoughtless in changing wet
clothes when tried or overheated from
exertion. When standing about after
the games are finished, risk Of chill il
much more than during the actual
games; chill passing away in most
cases without injury except when the
colon has become blocked either by
neglect or Encouragement. Then
comes the risk of appendicitis
sometimes arising with startling
abruptness, sometimes approaching
insidiously" Sir William Macewen.
Second-Without doabt, hurried
eating and imperfect mastication are
very potent causes of appendicitis
yet eating hurriedly was prevalent in
England and America long before ap.
pendioitis became 80 frequent. Mrs.
Trol1ope's book on America, published
upwards Of forty years ago, gave tue
most vivid description of the hurried
eating in America in her day. In my
experience for many years past much
more care is taken in that respect
than formerly. The dentistry of the
presentage is infinitely more perfeo,
than it was fortv years ago, when i,
began to flourish after Abernethy' i
blue pill" mercury had ruined the
teeth Of his generation. Sir Frederick
Treves once said at q meeting of sur
geons, MANY an operation for sppen
dicitis has been prevented by a new
set Of teeth
!. Fifty years ago England wal
awakening from the blue pill" sni
black draught' Of Abernethy. and
people were beginning to discontinue
the use of purgativee. Priessnitz hat
taught what tumbler of simple colo
water in the early morning could d.
to throw aside the blue pill ant
"black draught' regime. But thi
happy era OF health management wa
burst in upon about twenty-five year
ago by the introduction of Hungarian
water, aperient salts, and liver pills
thousands began to dose themselves
and sad to cay, continue to do 60 {,
|. this day.
It is natural to ask. what hav,
aperient waters and salts to do will
appendicitis? To that, q very tru
answer is that the action Of ssIin
purgatives is to cause aow of waite
| LuIOu8u tA0 1AL0oLAAdI C0udl. III
passes 80 quickly, but alas it leave
the solid portions to accumulate in tn
caecum at the right side. near tn,
appendix, where the small intestin
ends and the large one commences
The solid portions left in the colo,
become more and more putrid, cause
obstruction, and infect the appendix
Peritonitis follows, with EXTERN
danger to life.
In health, when nature is not hin
dered from doing her ordinary work
the food, after masticatlon, has t.
pass out of the stomach through tn
first door (the pylorus**). which stay
it's progress for some hours. Natur
is not impatient: that is, she wait
and works slowly, and rebels If i'll
mastioated fragments try to re
through. In the first portion of the i,
testine 1.-THE duodenum) the bile an