PHYSIOLOGICAL. 



335 



ploring' finger it feels soft, like the 

 small intestine ; but when congested or 

 inflamed it becomes rigid or stiff. It 

 is generally covered in front by some 

 coils of small intestine. Anatomically 

 its structure is like that of the large 

 intestine — but much more glandular. 

 The muscular walls of the appendix 

 have been seen to contract with those 

 of the caecum, urged by the same nerve 

 impulses. This contractile power ex- 

 plains why foreign bodies are seldom 

 found and also why any such bodies, 

 if in, might be expelled later with the 

 normal mucous secretions. The cavity 

 of the appendix almost always con- 

 tains (even before birth) the usual 

 contents of the caecum. What is the 

 function of the appendix? As it tends 

 to shrink or become closed, with age, 

 and appears to cause no disturbance 

 to the economy when removed as a 

 diseased organ or as a precaution 

 against disease, we must study its de- 

 velopment. Has it ever been useful 

 to man ? 



We find the caecal pouch is largest 

 and best developed in herbivorous ani- 

 mals and birds and least developed in 

 the flesh eaters. In the mixed feeders 

 it is moderate in size. The herbivor- 

 ous cow, sheep and deer, with com- 

 plex, four-chambered stomachs, have 

 each a large caecal pouch. Birds have 

 two caecal pouches or appendices. The 

 small intestine enters the colon be- 

 tween them. In the turkey these ap- 

 pendices are twelve or more inches 

 long. In the fowl they are six to ten 

 inches long. The horse family have 

 simple stomachs and presumably less 

 digestive capacity than the cloven 

 hoofs. The caecum in the horse is 

 over three feet long and nearly a /foot 

 in diameter. The hare, rabbit and bea- 

 ver have very large caecal pouches. In 

 fact all the hoofed animals and also the 

 rodents have relatively large caeca, an 

 indication that the food is coarse and 

 difficult to digest. These large pouches 

 act to delay the food or to provide 

 additional secretion and a more com- 

 plete digestion. The carnivora, eating 

 more concentrated and nutritious food, 

 have small appendices. Leopards and 

 tigers have a short caecal pouch with 

 a nipple-like appendix. The bears, 



badgers, raccoons, bats, frogs and tur- 

 tles have neither caecal pouch nor ap- 

 pendix. Our poor relations, the fruit- 

 eating monkeys, are provided with an 

 appendix several times the relative 

 size, compared with man. The caecal 

 pouch tapers into the appendix like 

 the human embryo form. Looking 

 into our own embryology, we find the 

 appendix very long and clearly the 

 tapering end of the caecal pouch. At 

 birth it is still long and large. The 

 adult form is reached at about the fifth 

 year. The appendix was carefully ex- 

 amined in a series of several hundred 

 autopsies. The result showed that 

 from fifteen years of age on, an in- 

 creasing percentage of appendices were 

 either obliterated or obstructed. At 

 sixty years, fifty per cent of all appen- 

 dices were found to be functionless. 

 This conclusion is forced upon us. 

 Man was formerly an herbivorous 

 creature having a long and voluminous 

 caecal pouch in his pendulous abdo- 

 men, and embryology indicates that 

 this time does not lie very far back 

 in our history. After a time culinary 

 skill developed and man's interest in 

 the delights of a varied bill of fare was 

 awakened. The more nutritious diet 

 was appreciated by his overworked 

 paunch. His caecum, less needed, 

 gradually shrunk, leaving the dwind- 

 ling appendix in its present form — a 

 slender, stunted, disappearing organ, 

 destined to pass away when we take 

 our merely necessary nutriment concen- 

 trated in the form of tablets and capsules. 

 The appendix in man secretes mucus 

 that may serve to moisten and assist 

 the onward movement of the intestinal 

 contents. It still has a function al- 

 though the work is on a small scale. 



We have it on the list, 



And we know it does exist, 



Yet it never would be missed, by our race. 



But the wise herbivorist 



Has good reason to insist, 



That the caecum should persist, in his case. 



A few words concerning the inter- 

 esting and fashionable appendicitis. 

 What causes it ? 



Small or smooth seeds and such solid 

 bodies, sometimes found, probably 

 never cause trouble. A pin or sharp 



