The Diagnosis of Appendicitis.

Following up an experience of operating in more than 2,000 cases Dr. J. B. Murphy is reported, as saying: "The symptoms of acute appendicitis are in my experience in the order of their occurrence: 1. Pain in the abdomen, sudden and severe. 2. Followed by nausea or vomiting. 3. General abdominal sensitiveness. 4. Elevation of the temperature, beginning from two to twenty-four hours after the onset of pain. These symptoms occur almost without exception in the above order, and when that order varies I always question the diagnosis." Concerning elevated temperature he says, in acute appendicitis it must always be present; it never precedes the pain. In 2,000 cases it was present in the early stage.—Med. Summary.

Ellingwood's Therapeutist, Vol. 3, 1909, was edited by Finley Ellingwood M.D.