Charles Darwin, in his “Descent of Man,” published in 1871, writes thus
of the appendix: “It is occasionally quite absent, or again is largely
developed. The passage is sometimes completely closed for half or
two-thirds of its length, with the terminal part consisting of a
flattened solid expansion. In the orang this appendage is long and
convoluted: in man it arises from the end of the short cecum, and is
commonly from four to five inches in length, being only about the third
of an inch in diameter. Not only is it useless, but it is sometimes the
cause of death, of which fact I have lately heard two instances: this is
due to small, hard bodies, such as seeds, entering the passage, and
causing inflammation.”
But Darwin was not the first to recognize the uselessness and danger of
the appendix, since M. C. Martins, in “_Revue des Deux Mondes_,” which
was published in 1862, mentioned the fact that this rudiment sometimes
caused death. Indeed it is said the ancient Egyptians knew the appendix
became inflamed and caused death, but for this we can not vouch.
In spite of these _hints_ of Martin and Darwin, physicians called the
symptom syndrome of what is now known to be appendicitis, typhlitis or
perityphlitis for years, although the cecum itself is seldom inflamed
without some pathological change in the appendix. The latter structure,
however, is often very badly diseased while the cecum is perfectly
normal.
The first methodical operation for appendicitis was performed in 1886 by
Reginald Fitz, and even today it is sometimes hard to persuade a patient
to have this structure removed simply because recovery often occurs
without operation.