appendicitis and operation but, much to the discomfiture of the
doctor, the bowels start up and relieve all suffering.

A few of these cases develop a chronic colitis. The bowel discharges
are more or less coated with catarrhal secretion. Not all are
constipated; obstinate diarrhea is the character of some; there are
here and there a few cases that throw off a membrane two or three
times a year, often in appearance like a cast of the lumen.

Enteritis, entero-colitis and dysentery are different forms of bowel
troubles that cause much uneasiness, for it is such a common matter
to call everything appendicitis, and if the patient is credulous and
gullible he may be operated upon even if his disease is a proctitis
or a case of gas in the bowels.

It is no uncommon thing for a case of obstinate constipation,
accompanied by colic, to be operated upon for removal of the
appendix if the pain is obstinate and hangs on long enough for the
patient to be scared into an operation. The pressure from
constipation and the constant strain on the cecum render this
particular section of the bowels liable to take on local
inflammations.

The recognized literature of the day attributes all infectious
disease to germs or micro-organisms. That all diseases originating
in the alimentary canal are due to infection there can be no doubt,
and all agree, but I do not agree with the prevailing opinion that
germs or micro-organisms are the primary cause of infection, for
that theory is not sufficient; it can not possibly cover the ground
and account for everything that takes a part in the great array of