Appendix

“Complete absence of the appendix is rare in man but is common in such animals as the dog or cat.” Thus, last week in Chicago, explained Dr. William Alexander Newman Borland, obstetrician and author of much note, concerning the discovery of a man who lacked his vermiform (worm-shaped) appendix.* This is now apparently useless to modern man, may be vestigial from the alimentary system of a onetime man-animal, has atrophied from want of utilization, just as the little finger and the little toe of the furthest civilized humans are now going.

*This is tubular cul-de-sac, thick as a goose quill, one-half to nine inches long, running from the caecum, or large intestine, in the lower right-hand part of the abdomen. Fecal matter sometimes slips from the caecum into its narrow opening, or lumen, putrifies there and causes the various forms of appendicitis.