448 ZOOLOGY AND MEDICINE. 



Ascaris lumhricoides does the same in man in some degree. Also 

 clinicians have, in fact, often noted, but without attaching to the 

 fact the importance that it merits, the presence of ascarides in greater 

 or less numbers in individuals suffering from intestinal disorders, 

 especially in typhoid fever. Roederer and Wagler, in 1760, observed 

 at Gottingen a violent epidemic of typhoid fever, or, as they called it, 

 morbus mucosus^ in the course of which they discovered the Trico- 

 cephalus. This parasite was found abundantly in the intestines of 

 those persons upon whom they made autopsies. 



For some fifteen years past there has been described in medicine, 

 under the name of appendicitis, an affection of the ileo-ca?cal region 

 which clinicians considered as a new disease. As attention was called 

 to it about the time that influenza began to flourish, there was no 

 delay in attempting to establish a relationship between these two 

 morbid manifestations, which have, however, no resemblance to each 

 other, and it was at once proclaimed that " appendicitis is the grippe 

 of the large intestine." An admirable formula for those who amuse 

 themselves with the sound of words. A deceptive subterfuge for 

 those who wish explanations based upon well-observed facts. 



On March 12, 1901, Metchnikoff was able to demonstrate at the 

 tribune of the Academy of Medicine that appendicitis is caused by 

 the Tricocephalus. His brilliant demonstration was rather coldly 

 received. The surgeons boldly continued to open abdomens and 

 remove appendices. Recently when the question of appendicitis 

 again came up for discussion before the academy, I took part in my 

 turn in order to defend the theory of its verminous origin, supporting 

 it by a number of data and anatomo-physiological facts that Avas 

 truly imposing.'^ I also showed the antiquity of appendicitis, for- 

 merly known under the name of typhlo-colitis. I do not cherish the 

 illusion that I have converted the surgeons to my views, although 

 some of them have informed me that they accept them unreservedly, 

 but I have the right to consider that the verminous origin of appendi- 

 citis is definitely established and that it explains the greater part of 

 the clinical phenomena. 



Can we then say that the Helminthes are infectious? Not at all; 

 while they undoubtedly play a j)art in the production of disease, that 

 part is, in a manner, only a preparatory one. The ascaris, as we 

 have seen, erodes and ulcerates the intestinal mucous membrane; 

 the injuries produced there are still more grave when it is attacked by 

 the Tricocephalus, the Uncinaria, and other Helminthes that, armed 

 with hooks or not, j^ierce it and bury themselves within far enough 

 to reach the capillary blood vessels. They thus produce a series of 



1 R. Blancbard, L'appendicite et la typhlo-colite sont tr&s frequemment des 

 affections vermineuses. Archives de Parasitologic X, p. 405, 1906. 



