CAUSES OF APPENDICITIS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 8098, 24 March 1905, Page 2

CAUSES OF APPENDICITIS.

Dr Joseph Kidd contributes to the Nine- ' teeMh Century an article on." The Cause ; ■■• and Prevention of Appendicitis from a ■ Physician's Point of View," which is of more than ordinary, interest now that this dire . internal trouble has spread to so large an extent. Dr Kidd shows that the'disease was very infrequent uutil about twenty years ago, though many of its apparent or probable causes were just as prevalent then as now. Chill, he says, is very often the immediate cause, and getting the feet wet from various games on the grass may partly. \. account for its prevalence, also , for its'*'' greater frequency in males than in females, and in young persons between the ages of ten and twenty than at other ages. Other very potent causes of appendicitis, Dr Kidd points out, are eating hurriedly and, imperfect mastication, and the matter is made - j> worse by the widely-spread habit of dosing -™ oneself with saline waters, and other purgatives. For the prevention of appendicitis, Dr. Kidd lays down three rules:—" Do not neglect chills when heated by exercise, especially after games on grass, or when much fatigued in mind or body ; masticate well, eat slowly; do not swallow any food that is not perfectly softened by the teeth. Even salads, fruit, nuts, almonds and raisins may be taken freely if really well masti" cated. In the haste and bustle of city life it is better to take half a meal well masticated than to bolt the whole in a hurry. Avoid aperient salts, waters, or pills. Far better to let Nature do her own work undisturbed by purgatives of any sort."