The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1944-04-21


repugnant. A child toddling and
lurehing across the floor in its
first attempts TO walk is charm
ing; not so in second childhood
with his last attempts to walk.
l say second childhood means
particularly the mental characters
Of the period. But there is also a
curious repetition of the physical
ailments of the young in old age:
it is often forgotten by physicians
that old people are susceptible to
some of the diseases particularly
likely to be found in children. To
name only two-whooping cough
and appendicitis. / have frequent
ly repeated in this column the elm
ical aphorism-"If Johnny brings
whooping cough home from school
who in the household is most likely
TO get it? The answer is-"Grand-
pa"
Appendicitis is particularly =
disease of the young. If you were
to investigate the hospital records
of a thousand cases of appendicitis
and classified them on the basis Of
the age of the patient alone, you
would find that about $50 were
under the age of 80, and of these
$50 were under the age of 10. The
incidence declines very rapidly
after the age of 80. This is be-
cause the appendix atrophies, es-
pecially the Emphatic, or tonsil-
lar-like tissues Of which it is so
largely composed at birth and by
the age Of 40 it is a mere string
in most people.
DR.. Hertzler's Examinat ions
DR.. A. Z. Hertzler examined q
thousand appendices at all ages
and found that of those recovered
from persons over the age of 40
that rs per cent were so atrophied
that there was hardly anything
left to infect, so that infection by
germs and consequent appendicitis
is a very remote possibility. But
that 25 per cent Of the population
does go on to old age with its APP
pendiX Emphatic tissue more or
less intact and with the further
factor of the reduced resistance to
germs which occurs in elderly peo-
pie so that they again become
liable to appendicitis.
Since gallstones occur so fire.
quently in old people Ia recent
series of reported autopsies on
people over so showed that 80 per
cent of them harbored gallstones)
an acute stomach ache in an elder
ly person is almost invariably put
down to gladstone collie when quite
often it is appendicitis.
The diagnosis is further con-
fused in that doctors always feel
that fever should go with ap-
pendicitis. They get it in young
people, but the old notably are
sluggish with temperature re-
Spouse, so their appendicitis is
likely to go without fever, and
hence is overlooked. But the ap-
pendicitis of old people is a good
example Of second childhood.
Diet of the Aged
Another is TIE diet of the aged.
One great mistake in the medical
management of the aged is to let
them select their own food which
they do on the basis of the condi-
ton Of their teeth, selecting the
foods they can chew, and on the
basis of previous tastes, and some
what on the pocketbook. In any
family circle great attention is
paid to selecting the diet of the
child, but it is equally important
to select and insist on the diet Of
the aged. Here, since | have
knocked the indiscriminate use Of
concentrated vitamins on so many
occasions, let me say that such
vitamins should be given as q
routine to the aged.
There is a new specially rising
in medicine-geriatrics-the man
agement Of the troubles Of old age,
which should throw much needed
light on these subjects. The life
expectancy of baby born in 1900
was on the average 40 years, but
in 1914 it is closer to 60 years, SO
we have an increasingly large
aged population 10 care for.