To the Editor:
—Under the above heading in The Journal, June 27, 1908, p. 2121, there appeared an article by Dr. J. E. Moore, in which the use of the ice bag in acute appendicitis was referred to as the height of folly and as post-hoc reasoning.For years I have used ice applications (preferably drain ice bags) extensively in hospital and private practice, in many acute ailments, including selected cases of acute appendicitis, and at no time has injury been observed to the regions where such applications were made.No ice-bag application of ordinary size and kind can cause freezing of the parts applied, because the living tissues involved can never be cooled to or under the freezing point, as the ice is constantly in a melting and not freezing state (in an ordinary atmosphere with the temperature about 70 F.).No one, of course, would use freezing mixtures,