356 Stapley and Lewis : 



a carnivorous food, has only 1.9 metres of stomach and in- 

 testinal tract. (Fig. 15.) 



Generalisation and Summary. In Keen's surgery we read : 

 " It is an established f^t that appendicitis is more prevalent in 

 some families than in others. On the other hand certain fanii- 

 lies seem to have complete immunity against the disease. Lucas 

 Champonnier, 1904, analysing 22,000 patients among Roumanian 

 peasants, found but one case of appendicitis ; they live mostly 

 on vegetables. The Roumanians in the city, chiefly on animal 

 diet, are frequently affected, one case of appendicitis among 

 every 221 patients. The vegetarian diet of the Japanese and 

 the Indians in India seems to protect them against appendicitis. 

 The absence of appendicitis among the Arabs living in tribes and 

 on vegetables, with its prevalence among those in cities where 

 meat is the chief diet, has already been spoken of." 



These observations agree with widespread medical opinion ; 

 it does not necessarily follow that they are wholly correct. The 

 Zulus are great meat eaters. South African surgeons should 

 settle the point whether Zulus are often attacked with appen- 

 dicitis. We are inclined to the idea that appendicitis is as rare 

 amongst Zulus as amongst other savages ; the Zulu on his meat 

 diet is built on athletic lines, the Indian coolie on his rice food 

 is a miserable specimen of humanity compared with the robust 

 Zulu. It seems to us that the meat theory of appendicitis is not 

 firmly established, and widespread scientific investigation of the 

 influence of food on bowel structure is required. 



When such careful investigation is made, we believe that instead 

 of blaming meat alone for causing appendicitis no special food 

 will be blamed ; but that it will be shown that any food of small 

 bulk and high nutritive quality if taken by an animal used to 

 a bulkier food containing cellulose for a long period, causes 

 atrophy from disuse of the caecum. After studying many forms 

 of intestines it becomes impossible to escape the belief that the 

 function of the bowels dominates their development. Compara- 

 tive anatomy is waiting for the establishment of the anatomical 

 types of caecum that prevail among the races of mankind. 



The wombat, being the only animal outside the Primates 

 showing a vermiform appendix, lends a peculiar Australian 

 interest to the study of the morphology of the vermiform 

 appendix. The wombat completely refutes the theory that the 



