Dr. W. B. Russell. of Soochow contributed a paper on appendi tis. He said that in 1827 L. Mellier described appendicitis and said: "If it were possible to establish with certainty the diagnosis of this affection we could see the possibility of curing the patient by operation. We shall, perhaps, some day arrive at this result." To-day we knew his words were prophetic, for the knowledge of the symptoms had become so general in America that typical appendicitis was often diagnosed before the doctor saw the patient. But he feared that even the profession did not realize the enormous number of people who had appendicitis, Toft recorded 500 autopsies and in 36 per cent. of them there were positive signs of past attacks, Taking into considera. tion the results of recent research. especially in helminthiasis. ete.. it} seemed hardly reasonable that the percentage of appendicitis should be less in the Chinese.
Appendicitis was rare in infancy and was seldom seen in extreme
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