Cause of Appendicitis.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 701, 10 November 1909, Page 6

Cause of Appendicitis.

Whether the gre«t increase in the cases nt appendicitis is real and due to some factor of modern methods of feeding and living, or apparent only, and due to greater skill in diagonsis, still iem tins an interesting question for debate (says the ' Hospital.') In the of appendicitis operate 1 upon hy Mr Battle, a concretion was found to contain a small irregular fragment of iron, and Mr Battle suggests that miuute particles of iron finding their way into the flour milled by fluted steel i oilers may account for this increase in appendicitis. He points out that the greater prevalence of appendicitis was first heard of in the United States, and only later when so much of our flour came from over the seas and when our own stone mills could no longer be worked at a profit, was there any apparent increase in the disease in this country. Moreover, in America the increase in appendicitis occurred first in the towns where rulled flour was first used, then it spread to the villages, and finally to the negroes when flour became so cheap that it was more profitable to buy it th m to grind the corn at home. Should further investigations support this theory, it would become a question or public importance that proper methods should be adopted to secure the elimination of all iron particles from the flour.

M.r James King, who has just; die'l at Milverton, Somerset, aged eighty-six—-the age at which an elder brother died —leaves three married sisters aged uinety-eight, ninety-four aud eightyeiglit. By an explosion in a Barcelona theatre a member of the audience was injure!, but with great presence of mind someone near the place of the explosion started applauding as though nothing had happened, and thus averted a pauie. It is estimated that there are 8,000,000 telephones now in use in the world. There is a house in Lombart street, London, which was rente! at £25 in 1665, and now rents at £2600. The United Kiogdom imports more fruit than any other country in Europe, spending £6,500,000 a year. The highest profit to be realised in the production of mutton and wool for the mirket comes from inducing rapid development. Every' farmer who is anxious to know what cows in his herd are paying their board bill each year keeps records of their production. With a temperature of from 55 to 60 degrees butter should be produced in from 30 to 45 minutes, providing the other conditions are right. Tn all the experimental butter made in the last three years there has been no trace of fishy flavor in that made from pasteurised sweet cream churned without the addition of a starter.

The Cologne ' Yolkszeitung ' vouches for the accuracy of a remarkable story of a nun's eucounter with a bull. The heroine is one of three Sisters of the Order of Saint Yincent who have charge of a large dairy near Rottenmunster, Wurtemberg. The bull attacked a sixty-year-old herdsman, who wis pinned against a wall. Two other men were too frightened to interfere, but the nun ran from the dairy, flung herself on the animal and seized its horns. She actually succeeded in throwing the bull off his feet, and before it could rise again the nun and the three laborers were in sife shelter.

The death has taken place at Queenstown, South Afrio, of Desirez Cornelius Mesdom, who was born at Briel, Belgium, on August 2, 1805. As a boy of ten he was a drummer in Napoleon's army at the Battle of Waterloo, and his father, Josephus .Mesdom, was a soldier in the ranks. A merica's latest idea in catering is a poultry farm on the top of a restaurant in Thirty-sixth St., New York, known as Keen's Chop-house. Customers, it is explainad, will climb up before the hors d'ceuvres, and pick out the bird they want for dinner. It will be cooked and ready by the time the joint is cleared away.