The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1907-05-09
ORIGIN OF APPENDICITIS
Word Coined liz 1886 BY q Boston Ply
Sician,

Boston physician. He says he invent
| ed it to suit his purpose OF calling
attention to Inflammation of the ap-
pendix as an object Of direct treat
| ment. Before that time the names
| used had not given the appendix it.
| self the discredit belonging to 1t as
| the actual cause of the trouble
From the great mass of operations
which have been performed since
/ Fits article appeared it has been
| possible to make exhaustive studies
Of the disease. Even yet however,
the physicians say they don't know
what is the function of the appendix.
The causes are better understood.
For time everybody was blaming
grape seeds. That theory has been
exploded Foreign bodies. such as
are not found in the great majority
| of cases.
In 1000 cases at Johns Hopkins
Hospital foreign bodies were found in
only four. In many cases the con-
| tents 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, a leap from a street
car, an hour of swimming, exposure
to cold, blow of the fist, a kick,
fall, a bruise or any one of a hun
dred other applications of force may
king about the disease.
According to the Boston Herald,
Pms are the most common and most
| dangerous of the foreign substances.
For small heavy objects, like bull
lets and for all pointed bodies the ap-
| pendix is sort of trap. These for
eign bodies may be direct causes of
the disease.
Of 4,028 autopsies performed at the
Boston City, Johns Hopkins and
| Rhode Island hospitals there were sc
cases in which acute i1fammatory
| disease of the vermiform appendix
/ caused death, directly or indirectly.
| About sc per cent. were males. About
| 4S per cent of the deaths occurred
/
| life.
In some of the cases the symptoms
Of appendicitis were not discovered
until after death. The larger percen-
| tage of cases among men and boys
| is explained plausibly as being due to
| the greater liability to exposure to
| injury and the greater tendency to
errors in diet, and in part perhaps, to
the excessive use of tobacco and the
consequent digestive disturbances.
I" The explanation given for the rel
| alive exemption of negroes is that
their diet is simple. They take
great deal of outdoor exercise, and
they are free from digestive disrur-
bances,' says Kelly In the Johns
Hopkins Hospital where one negro is
| admitted for every four white men,
only one negro is operated on for aI,-
| pendicitis to twelve white men.
J Lennander has called appendicitis
family disease, and many other ply
| sicians have been struck by the oc-
| currence of the disease in members
of the same family, One has report
ed three cases in three successive
generations of a family. A father,
two sons and two daughters were
| affected in another family.
Disorders of digestion have the
most important influence in determin-
ing an acute attack of appendicitis"
says Kelly.
The size of the appendix varies &C
cording to age and to persons. It's
| length averages from three to three
and a nalf. inches. The appendix of
the man is slightly larger than that
of the woman.
The growth is irregular and I'M
certain. There is a record of one ap-
pendix more than a foot long. Be
| tween the ages of 10 and 80 it reaches
it's largest size, though some observers
make the period from 20 to 40. 1t us
| ually decreases in size as person
| grows old, but in some cases it has
| been found full sized in the aged.
The width of the appendix varies
| much less than the length, the com
| mon width being that of goose quill.
! But there are abnormalities in width,
as in length. 1t points in different dir
| ections at different times, and chart
| of it's various positions is 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
| patient is such that the inspection
would be an added danger Of sew
enty surgeons who were canvassed by
Kelly on the question: when the alb
| domen is opened for other causes and
| the perfectly normal appendix rs cas-
| lily accessible is it your rule to remove
| ft?" forty-four replied against, and
the rest in favor of doing so.
The result of a canvass among
| many physicians as to whether the an
| pendix, while still in a normal con6i-
ton, should be removed as pre-
ventive measure was the almost unani-
/ II, hat L, <,+o {rS