The following should be of interest for it is a very _scientific
explanation _of how the young man came to die:]

"The clinical history is in every respect typical and instructive.

"It shows us that the origin of peritonitis which is by far the most
common, is in a diseased appendix. At the autopsy this was found
necrotic and perforated. It is questionable whether the perforation
existed from the onset of the disease; it is possible that at first
an ulcer extending to the serosa caused an infection of the
peritoneum; at all events this occurred acutely, and produced the
sharply defined disease."

[I agree. The perforation brought on the relapse and the collapse.]

"The clinical abdominal symptoms in the first period of the malady
pointed to the fact that at the onset there had been a diffuse
inflammation of the peritoneum, and that later, by the adhesions to
the appendix which were found at the autopsy an early encapsulation
of pus had taken place in the ileo-cecal region; this produced a
purulent softening in the wall of the cecum and led to the favorable
rupture of pus into the intestine and to an immediate amelioration
of the acute peritonitis. The point of rupture, however, then
closed, and partly perhaps to the action of fresh infectious and
toxic material, perhaps only to the perforation of the appendix, may
be ascribed the exacerbation of the peritonitis, that is, a renewed
attack which caused the death of the patient."

[The symptoms were those of intestinal putrefaction with local