Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 December 1887 — LITTLE THINGS THAT KILL. [ARTICLE]

LITTLE THINGS THAT KILL.

Dangers That Arise From Swallowing The Seeds of Fruit. [Hartford Times.] At various times the newspapers have warned the public against swallowing the seeds of grapes, oranges, etc., because of the danger of such substance getting into a small intestinal bag, or cul-de-sac, called by the doctors the appendix vermiformis. This is a little receptacle formed at the junction of t’ e large and small intestines, but its use or object no physician knows. It has been thought to be a rudimentary or incomplete formation, < r possibly some meaningless survival of a lost, anterior type, At any rate, its exis'ence, while presenting no apparent “reason for being,” as the French say, is on the other hand, a positive and constant source of danger, because of the liability of its becoming the receptacle of some undigested seed or other indigestible substance. In that ease it produces a state of inflammation which, in nearly all cases proves fatal. Fortunately but a few seeds among the great number so heedlessly swallowed seem to get into th.slitt e death-trap, although ai y one seems likely to lodge there. — Perhaps more cases of inflammation of the bowels than ■ he doctors suspect may be m reality due to this obscure and disregarded cause. One sad case, which to-day produces a feeling of deep regret among thousands, anl which plunges a family into overwhelming grief, occurred in this city Saturday evening in the lamented death cf J. Bobort Dwyer, the much-esteemed adjutant of the Governor’s Foot Guard—a man whose place that ancient cor - ":; can no - wei: make goo-1. His case so bellied the ( hysicians that an autopsy was held, and that revta’ed a piece of peanut shell in the appendix vermiformis.