DISCUSSION 155 



that it has to perform the physiologically 

 important function of an accessory or collateral 

 gland of the intestine. What exactly this 

 function is, remains still to be discovered. At 

 any rate, this theory has weakened the old 

 opinion that the vermiform appendix was a 

 rudimentary organ. With reference to the 

 stress laid by von Hansemann upon patho- 

 logical phenomena in man, in order thereby to 

 establish his dysteleology (or theory of absence 

 of design), I may here point out, that as long 

 ago as 1897, one of our most eminent patho- 

 logists, Professor G. Bier, von Bergmann's 

 successor in Berlin, writing in Virchow's Archiv, 

 propounded and established the thesis that 

 inflammations are not instances of inexpediency, 

 but are, on the contrary, beneficial prophylactic 

 devices on the part of an organism to rid itself 

 of bacteria or other injurious matter that 

 may have penetrated into the system. 1 



An interesting discussion upon Dr. Bier's 

 theory took place at the 35th Congress of the 

 German Surgical Society at Berlin on April 

 7th, 1906. (See the Proceedings, pp. 220-265.) 

 Against all objections Professor Bier main- 

 tained his thesis with success, showing that 

 inflammation is a process beneficial to the organ- 



1 On this subject cf. Professor G. Bier's work, Hyper&mia as Means of 

 Cure, Leipzig, 1907 ; also the article entitled ' Bier's Treatment of Hyper- 

 lemia' in the supplement to the Allgemeine Zeitung, 1907, No. 89, pp. 107- 

 109. 



