Appendicitis

ap-pen-di-si'tis, an inflammation of a small and apparently useless projection which grows from the extremity of the middle intestine. From its position it is thought that this projection was at one time useful to man, but it has long been disused. From its peculiar shape it is called the vermiform, or worm-shaped, appendix. Inflammation is attended with intense pain, due, it is thought, to the presence of a colony of minute parasitic plants. The lodgment of any foreign substance, as of a grape seed, is very likely to create a rawness of the appendix which makes it subject to the attacks of the bacillus. The first attack of the disease may be light, but it is almost certain to be followed by more severe attacks. Surgeons reduce the inflammation, then open the abdomen and remove the appendix with a knife. In a large majority of cases this treatment is successful. The last United States census reports 2,858 recorded deaths from this disease in the year 1900. The name is a new one. The history of the disease is entirely modern, though without doubt thousands have perished from it without knowing what ailed them. See Surgery