TALKS ON HEALTH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 159, 8 July 1939, Page 3

TALKS ON HEALTH

A BOL T APPENDICITIS Let. us try to understand something about appendicitis. Some people refuse to believe in it; they think it is' an imaginary complaint invented by a secret society of medicine men. Alas! this simple way of dismissing the subject will not hold water. Ask the sister of the operating theatre if she believes in the existence of appendicitis, when scores of times she has seen the foul abscess from the appendix gush forth at the operation. Ask the curator of the hospital museum. I who has to prepare the specimens of (diseased appendices for the instruction lof students. A Blind Alley. We Must first remind ourselves that the appendix is part of the intestines, therefore catarrh of the intestines is the same thing as catarrh of the appendix. If there were no such thing as intestinal catarrh, appendicitis would vanish. The next item is to understand t\H the appendix is a cul-de-sac —a blind alley. You may have noticed a stream of clear water keeping sweet so long as it continues to flow along; if the water is caught in a backwater where it remains stagnant, fermentation begins, bubbles form, grease collects, and a nasty smell may arise. The same reasoning applies to the condition under discussion so long as constipation is avoided and the contents of the bowels are kept moving, health remains; it is when stagnation occurs that fermentation. inflammation, and catarrh result; and since stagnation is more likely to occur in a blind alley than anywhere else, that affords the explantion of the frequency of inflammation of the appendix. Cases and Causes. There is every variety of case of appendicitis. The mildest form is a 'trivial pain passing off in a few hours; I the worst form, happily much rarer, may prove fatal in thirty-six hours. •Some people have two or three attacks lof appendicitis in a year, they would Ibe well advised to have this offending [organ removed and pickled in a hospital museum; it is a source of i danger. I want you to remember that everything that goes in at the mouth has to pass by the appendix. You have read about the epidemic of enteric that ravaged the village in the valley because the stream that supplied them with drinking water had been befouled higher by the discharges from a typhoid patient. The appendix may be affected by the discharge from isoptic teeth in the mouth. The organ■isms in the mouth and the organism.', ■taken from the diseased at pendix have > I been investigated and found to be l identical. A clean, sweet mouth is a [good protection against appendicitis. The Intestines and the Appendix. I '.Phe intestine is a tube like a hosepipe many feet long. It differs from a | hose-pipe in that, it is not the same i size all the way. Near the end it gets larger, and where the small and large intestine join there is a blind outgrowth forming a branch, and there the simile of a hose-pipe breaks down. If the contents of the intestines had a straight course to run all the way, some of our medical and surgical complications would be non-existent. The blind pouch is a stumbling block. The food has to find its way in and out like a lot of people walking down a blind alley and having to turn . round and force their way back. In ' herbivorous animals, like the rabbit, ■ the blind alley is very large; in the man it is much smaller. At the end of the blind pouch is the appendix, which is so often inflamed. Particles of food and germs and debris of various sorts get into the appendix and cannot get. out. They begin by causing a slight catarrh, then a more serious inflammation, until finally an abscess is formed, and an operation lis necessary to save life. A healthy appendix gives no trouble. The Danger Signal. i Catarrh of the intestine is the [danger signal. You should, therefore, [abolish appendicitis by keeping your [ insides clean. Be sure your crimes will find you out. A breakfast of stewed tea. a lunch of stewed tea and potato, a. tea of tea and chewing-gum. with perhaps a couple of cheap cigarettes, and a .-upper of stewed tea will give i you appendicitis. If you teeth are bad [and you food is mixed with the discharge that comes from the septic iteeth, an abscess will develop. If you pre constipated for three days, allowing the inside to grow stagnant like a 'pond of dirty water, you are once (again asking for trouble. Even if you remove the constipation by a violent, ’purge, you will torment your insides and leave them in a bad temper. (’ougiis and Coughs. I There arc two kinds of coughs, (which are of opposite natures. One is The dry. hard, barking cough, in which ino phlegm is brought up. and the lother is the loose cough which results ’in a copious expectoration. In the (latter case the bronchial tubes are ;choked up with phlegm, and the cough ishould be encouraged, because if the bronchial tubes remain blocked up the patient, will not. be able to breathe. It is plain that these two kinds of coughs ;require two different kinds of medicine. The loose cough must be encouraged: the harsh, dry cough must be stopped. This points out. one very peal danger in taking a cough mixture j which was ordered for somebody else, [the prescription of which has been .handed on. Suppose you have a cough [which should be encouraged in order [to clear the tubes, and you take a 1 cough mixture which was intended for the other kind of cough, you run the risk of getting your bronchial tubes blocked up worse than ever. Each patient must be studied carefully, and ‘.hen the medicine ordered—a haphazard swallowing of any old cough I mixture mr< do harm