Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 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 uevjspapers 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 1 e large ana small intestines, but its use or < bject 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 case 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 s litt e death-trap, although ary one seems likely to lodge there. — Perhaps more cases of inflammation of the bowels than the doctors suspect may be m reality due to this obscure and disregarded cause. One sad case, which to-day produces a feeliug of deep regret among thousands, an 1 which plunges a family into overwhelming grief, occurred in this city Saturday evening in the lamented death of J. Robert Dwyer, the much-esteemed adjutant of the Governor’s Foot Gir id —a man whose place that ancient corns can nut well make good. His case so baffled the ; hysic ansthat n autopsy was held, and that revc-a ed a piece of peanut shell in the appendix vermiformis.