Lectures on appendicitis and notes on other subjects / by Robert T. Morris ; with illustrations by Henry MacDonald.

  • Morris, Robert T. (Robert Tuttle), 1857-1945.
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on appendicitis and notes on other subjects / by Robert T. Morris ; with illustrations by Henry MacDonald. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    occur perhaps in patients whose intestinal contents ferment, may be independent of any disease of the appendix; but fatty con- cretions probably occur only as a result of long ulceration of the lymphoid coat. Bacteria are by all means the most important things found in the appendix. The colon bacilli which have their normal habitat in the colon are almost invariably present in the lumen of the appendix, and they are harmless dwellers there unless an infec- tion atrium gives them an opportunity to migrate into the tissues. The pyogenic streptococci are also pretty constant dwellers in the normal appendix. Many of the less important pyogenic bacteria and saprophytes, or bacteria of fermentation, harmlessly lurk in the nook of the appendix awaiting the advent of conditions which will be favorable for their rapid multiplication. When an infec- tion atrium is made, the infection is at first mixed in character, as observed in a number of my specimens of infected appendices which were removed in the very early stages of appendicitis. The streptococci are apt to outstrip other bacteria in the second part of the race, and the colon bacilli are apt to lead finally. Thriving colonies of bacteria are daily swept along through the normal colon, and are moved out of most appendices ; but we must always look at the appendix as a test tube full of culture media, and forming a nook in which bacteria lurk dangerously when once the protecting structures of the appendix have been disabled. Some of the higher entozoa are frequently found in the appendix, and the nematode oxyuris is fond of making it a nest.