APPENDICITIS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1115, 28 June 1913, Page 4

APPENDICITIS.

The prevalence of appendicitis adds a new terror to daily life. Neither youth nor age is immune. Everyone leels that in households where there is no outward sign of sickness one of its members may be suddenly smitten. Two instances have recently come under my personal observation (writes Sir Henry Lucy in his London letter to Sydney Morning Herald). One concerns a colleague on the staff of Punch, the other the son and heir of the Marquis of Londonderry. One afternoon Lord Castlereagh was talking to me in the lobby of the House of Commons, apparently in his usual health. The papers on the following afternoon announced that be had undergone an operation for appendicitis. Another peculiarity about the plague is its newness. 'When London was shocked by news that King Edward, almost on the eve of the day appointed for his Coronation, was seriously ill, I happened to be lunching with a Cabinet Minister, As a Council had beeu held on the previous afternoon, it seemed that here was opportunity of learning particulars vaguely hinted at in special editions of the morning papers. It was probable that before the Sovereign underwent a serious operation of extreme difficulty and danger the Cabinet would be communicated with. It turned out that our host received his first and only intimation of the circumstance when he opened the newspaper. Another curious thing was that no one in the room had ever heard of such a disease as appendicitis. We have heard too much of it since, and the marvel remains as to what happened before attention was called to the matter by the illness of King Edward. I suppose that, like some books, we all had appendicites whilst Queen Victoria was on the throne. Certainly we never heard of them developing tendencies requiring, in order to save life, instant application of the surgeon’s knife.