The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1907-03-18
APPENDICITIS NOT OLD.
Name of The Now Prevalent Disease
Dates at Least Back Only to 1855.

LAWS AZ AcaSb pdNk Only 10 1000.
The word appendicitis was coined in
1886 by DR.. Reginald H. Fits, Boston
physician. He says he invented it to
suit his purpose of calling attention TO
Inflammation of the appendix as an OBJ.
Iect of direct treatment. Before that
time the names used had not given the
appendix itself the discredit belonging
to it az the actual cause OF the trouble.
In 1000 cases at Johns Hopkins hos
pital foreign bodies were found in only
four. In many cases the contents of
the appendix resemble fruit stones, but
they are really organic matter and
salts.
Violent exertion and blows are causes
Of the disease far more often than is
generally supposed a long bicycle
ride, leap from street car, an hour
of swimming, exposure TO cold, blow
OF fist, a kick, fall, a bruise, or any
one of hundred other applications OF
force may bring about the disease.
Pins are the most common and most
dangerous of foreign substances. For
small, heavy objects, like bullets, and
for all pointed bodies the appendix is
a sort of trap. These foreign bodies
may be direct causes of the disease.
OF 4,02s autopsies performed at the
Boston City, Johns Hopkins and Rhode
Island hospitals, there were SO cases
in which acute inflammatory disease
Of the yermiform appendix caused
death, directly or indirectly. About 66
per cent. were males. About 43 per
cent. of the deaths occurred in the
second and third decades of life.
In some of the cases the symptoms
of appendicitis were not discovered un.
til after death. The larger percentage
Of cases among men and boys is ex-
planned phusibly as being due to the
greater liability to exposure 10 injury
and the greater tendency to errors in
diet, and, in part, perhaps, to excess
sive use Of tobacco and the consequent
digestive disturbances.
"Tho explanation given for the re-
iativs exemption of negroes Is that
their diet is simple, they take great
deal Of owkdoor exercise and they are
free from digestive disturbances" says
Kelly. In the Johns Hopkins Hospital,
where one negro is admitted for every
four white men, only one negro Is
operated on for appendicitis to IL white
men.
Lennander has called appendicitis
family disease, and many other physi.
clans have been struck by the occur
renee of the disease in members of the
same family. One has reported three
cases in three successive generations of
family. A father, two sons and two
daughters were affected in another
family.
Disorders Of digestion have in deter
mining an acute attack OF appendicitis"
says Kelly.
The size Of the appendix varies &C.
eording to age and to persons. It's
length averages from three to three and
a half inches. The appendix OF the
man is slightly larger than that of the
woman.
The growth Is irregular and uncer-
tain. There is record Of one appendix
Of more than foot long. Between the
ages of 10 and 30 it reaches its largest
size though some observers made the
period from 20 to 40. II usually de.
creases in size as a person grows old,
but in some cases 1t has been found
full sized in the aged.
The width OF the appendix varies
much less than the length, the common
width being that of goose quill But
there are abnormalities in width, as
in length. Il points in different dir
ections at different times, and chart
of its various positions is a figure
shaped approximately like a daddy.
long legs" spider.
In some places, the hospital of the
Johns Hopkins Medical School. for in
stance, it Is the custom to Examine the
appendix whenever the abdomen Is
opened, unless the condition Of the pa.
tient is such that the inspection would
be an added danger. OF 10 surgeons who
were canvassed by Kelly on the
question, when the abdomen is opened
for other causes, and the perfectly nor
NAL appendix Is easily accessible, IA 1t
your rule 10 remove iti" Al replied
against it and the rest in favor of do
ing so.
The result Of a canvass among many
physicians as to whether the appendix,
while still in normal condition,
should be removed as a preventive
measure was tho almost unanimous con.
clusion that such step il absurd"
"unjustifablep or without excuse
Boston Herald.