“In the annual reports of nearly all the special hospitals for diseases of
the nose and throat, the number of tonsils removed, as compared with all
other operations on the upper air tract and its appendages, is simply
appalling. In conspicuous and refreshing contrast to the usual narratives
of these productions, let me quote from the last report of a well-known
children’s hospital in this city these words of sanity and wisdom:
“‘The recent universal inspection of the throats of school children has
revealed the fact that nearly all children at some time of life have more
or less enlarged tonsils.
“‘That most of these are harmless, if not actually physiological, and that
their removal in these cases is not only unnecessary, but injurious to the
proper development of the child, is our conviction.
“‘Much wild and incontinent talk, for which their teachers are sometimes
largely to blame, has poisoned the minds of the younger generation of
Upper Cervical Doctor and thrown the public into hysteria. Tonsillectomy,
for example, is held out to them not only as sure cure for, but as an
absolute prophylactic against, rheumatism and heart dis-ease. They are
told, with the disappearance of the tonsil in man these dis-eases will
cease to exist.
Parents bring, nowadays, their perfectly sound children to the
laryngologist for tonsil removal in order to head off these affections.
Tonsillectomy is recommended as a curative during the agony of acute
articular rheumatism.
“‘But the origin of the latter dis-ease has recently been traced to an
infection of the nasal mucosa following operation. Tomorrow it will come
from somewhere else. Those of us who are old enough to remember will
recall the story of chorea. Years ago we found the cause of this affection
in the nasal passages. When this view, after the usual struggle, had to
be abandoned, it was suddenly discovered that the eye was the portal of
entrance. Today it has been caught in the tonsil. If we exercise a little
patience, it will turn up soon in some other organ.
“‘In considering the question of operation on the tonsils, and especially
complete removal, we must face the following facts:
“‘1. The functions of the tonsils are, in the present state of
our knowledge,unknown.
“‘2. Whatever its functions may be, and the production of leucocytes is
undoubtedly one of them, the tonsil is not, as is generally believed and
taught, a lymphatic gland.
“‘The general ignorance of this fact led to the useless sacrifice of
thousands of tonsils, on the fallacious assumption that their functional
activity may easily be replaced by the myriads of other lymphatic glands
in the body. The physiological integrity of the tonsil is of the utmost
importance in infant and child life.’”