it can be said that the individual is ready to develop any phase of
disease that circumstance, accident, or caprice of fortune or
environment may offer.

The constant presence of gas in the bowels becomes more and more
menacing to the cecum as the constipation increases. The filled-up
condition of the bowels--the colon and rectum--prevents the easy
passage of gas from the bowels, hence it accumulates in the
ileo-cecal region and keeps the cecum distended.

The constant dilating of the cecum from gas accumulations and the
forced dilations from diarrheas made either from drugs or irritating
foods, must not only damage the cecum but the appendix as well; for
the appendix opens into this part of the intestine and it is
reasonable to believe that it suffers distention from gas and that
toxic secretions are driven into it. When its function is not
interfered with by an unusual pressure as from constipation, no
doubt it can empty itself and does do so.

When it is understood first of all that appendicitis--the
inflammation known as appendicitis--is a local manifestation of a
general or constitutional derangement, the cause for this local
manifestation may be taken up.

In order to understand why the disease localizes we must refer the
reader to the peculiar anatomical construction of the cecum and the
appendix, and their relation to other parts. The cecum is a large,
blind pouch, one of the shortest of the several divisions in the
continuity of the intestinal canal, which begins where the small
intestine ends, and ends where the large intestine begins. Its blind