PREVIOUS THEORIES 9 



hundred cases examined, he noted that the lumen was 

 obhterated. There is excellent reason to-day for saying 

 that occlusion of the appendix is the result of old in- 

 flammation. This is seen in the microscopical section 

 of an obliterated appendix. (Fig. 2.) Treves then 

 wrote, "Such specimens may be of interest in connec- 

 tion with the question as to whether the appendix has 

 a function or is functionless," seeming to suggest that 

 these cases argued against the possession of any useful 

 function. As a matter of fact, they point the other 

 way. In a large workshop you may find three per cent, 

 of the men with stiffened or amputated fingers, but it 

 would be the reverse of the truth to infer that fingers 

 were therefore useless. 



(2) I'hnt the tonsils and appendix secrete a lubricat- 

 ing mucus which facilitates deglutition in the one case 

 and the passage of fxces in the other. This is hardly 

 worthy of serious consideration, for a knowledge of 

 their histology shows that the appendix in man could 

 produce relatively little mucus, and the human tonsil 

 practically none. 



(3) That the tonsils and appendix form some of the 

 colourless corpuscles in the blood. This is undoubtedly 

 true, though probably only an incomplete expression 

 of their activities. 



(4) That the tonsils and appendix produce internal 

 secretions. What these internal secretions might be 

 has never been clearly defined, though Savini in 1914 

 brought forward evidence of an appendicular hormone 

 having an excito-motor influence on the large intestine 

 and some evidence of glycolytic action by the tonsils 

 has been adduced (Farmachidis & Vatterone, 1913). 

 Perhaps we are to regard the lymphocytes in some 

 sense as an internal secretion. But a suggestion in 

 this connection is made subsequently (end of 

 Chapter V.). 



