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31
It will be seen that the deaths from Appendicitis are on the increase. In
the earlier of the above mentioned years, there were few deaths from Appendicitis
recorded as such. Most of the deaths that I have included in those
years were registered as Typhlitis and Perityphlitis. There was hardly a
death recorded as Typhlitis or Perityphlitis in the latter years. It is only
fair to assume that as the number of operations increase year by year, the
case mortality should diminish. That is, if a certain number of operations
from Appendicitis had been performed last year, there ought to have been
fewer deaths than would occur when a similar number had been performed a
few years ago. It is therefore apparent that a far larger number of persons
actually suffer from Appendicitis than a few years ago.
What is the cause of this apparent increase ? It is surely something in
our mode of living, which was not present some years ago. Dr. Campbell
Williams in the Clinical Journal of May, 1905, points out that the increase
in the use of boracic acid as a food preservative may possibly account for the
frequency of Appendicitis nowadays. This drug acts as an irritant of the
gastro-intestinal tract, producing pain in the epigastrium and gas in the
stomach ana intestines, together with colic and diarrhcea. Boracic acid also
prevents the normal digesting action, performed in the gut by bacteria, especially
in the large gut, and hence probably the Peyer's patches are diminished
in functional size. These conditions may predispose to Appendicitis from
invasion of the intestinal wall by the bacillus coli communis.
It is undoubtedly true, as is seen in another part of this report, that
Boracic acid is extensively added at the present time to the most frequently
used of our foods.
On the other hand, infants and young children drink large quantities of
milk, which frequently contains Boracic acid, yet children under two years of
age are practically exempt from the disease.
Constipation, following the ingestion of too much cooked food, has also
been suggested as a cause, and per contra, the consequent abuse of drastic
purgatives. Both lead to abnormal lethargy and activity of the gut alternatively.