[This is my belief and treatment and has been since I began to practice my profession.]

The above extracts were taken from Dr. Ochsner’s Monograph on Appendicitis.

When a patient has completely recovered from appendicitis he should learn to live correctly.  Learn to eat properly and to know how to take care of the body in every way.

There is much to learn on the subject of what to eat, what not to eat, what foods to combine and what combinations to shun, when to eat, when not to eat, etc.

Appendicitis is caused by wrong eating; those who go through the disease and recover, will have another attack unless they change their style of eating.

CHAPTER VII

Treatment:  I believe that contrasting treatments is the very best way to teach; however, this plan is not so good when carried on in writing as it would be clinically.

In order to contrast my treatment with the best just now available I shall quote from one of the latest authorities, "Modern Clinical Medicine—­Diseases of the Digestive System." Edited by Frank Billings, M. D., of Chicago.  An authorized translation from “Die Deutsche Klinik” under the general editorial supervision of Julius L. Salinger, M. D. Published by D. Appleton and Company, 1906.

It is reasonable to believe that when one of our leading American physicians thinks enough of a foreign author to translate his productions the material must be pretty well up to the top of medical literature, and that is my only reason for selecting this particular contribution on which to make my comments for the purpose of contrast.

The case I select is strictly in line and parallels a case of my own.  It is a case of Diffuse and Circumscribed Peritonitis, treated and reported by O. Vierordt, M. D., of Heidelberg.

"Acute, Diffuse Peritonitus: As an introduction to the discussion of our present views of acute peritonitis I will relate the following clinical history: 

“Case 1.—­A previously healthy merchant, aged 31, was taken ill after a few days of vague, dull pain in the right side of the abdomen which he had disregarded, and upon the 20th of October, about midday, he was seized with very severe pain in the right lower abdominal region which compelled him to seek his bed; soon afterward he had chilly sensations which increased to marked chills; there was also nausea, eructation and vomiting, first of food and then of bilious mucus; a little later tenesmus appeared, the patient first voiding small, compact feces, followed by scant, thin dejecta.  Within a few hours the abdomen had become tympanitic, the pains continued with exacerbations upon motion, after eruetations, and on talking; the entire abdomen was very sensitive.  Strangury with the frequent discharge of scant urine was observed.

“Toward evening the physician found the patient extremely ill, immovable in the active dorsal decubitus, with an anxious facial expression, reddened cheeks, cautious, superficial respiration with a low, hushed voice; he complained of continuous, also occasionally of marked tearing and contracting pains in the entire abdomen, most severe upon the right side low down; the temperature was 103.2 degree F., the pulse was 112, full, somewhat tense, regular and even.