of air being driven out through this tube from the back of the throat,
under pressure brought to bear in blowing the nose. The luckless
position of the third tonsil could hardly have been better planned if it
had been devised for the special purpose of setting up trouble in the
mouths of these Eustachian tubes.

Just as soon as the enlargements become chronic, they pour out a thick
mucous secretion, which quickly becomes purulent, or, in the vernacular,
"matter." This trickles down on both sides of the throat, and drains
right into the open mouth of the Eustachian tube. Not only so, but these
Eustachian tubes are the remains of the first gill-slits of embryonic
life, and, like all other gill-slits, have a little mass of this same
lymphoid or tonsilar tissue surrounding them. This also becomes infected
and inflamed, clogs the opening, and one fatal day the inflammation
shoots out along the tube, and the child develops an attack of earache.
At least two-thirds of all cases of earache, and, indeed, five-sixths of
all cases of deafness in children, are due to adenoids.

Earache is simply the pain due to acute inflammation in the small
drum-cavity of the ear. This in the large majority of cases will subside
and drain back again into the throat through the Eustachian tube. In a
fair percentage of instances, however, it will break in the opposite
direction, and we have the familiar ruptured drum and discharge from the
ear. In either case the drum becomes thickened, so that it can no longer
vibrate properly; the delicate little chain of bones behind it, like the
levers of a piano, becomes clogged, and the child becomes deaf, whether
a chronic discharge be present or not.

This is the secret of his "inattention," his "indifference,"--even of
his apparent disobedience and rebelliousness. What other children hear
without an effort he has to strain every nerve to catch. He
misunderstands the question that is asked of him, makes an absurd
answer, and is either scolded or laughed at. It isn't long before he
falls into the attitude: "Well, I can't get it right, anyhow, no matter
how I try, so I don't care." Up to five or ten years ago the puzzled and
distracted teacher would simply report the child for stupidity,
indifference, and even insubordination. In nine cases out of ten, when
children are naughty or stupid, they are really sick.

Not content with dulling one of the child's senses, these thugs of the
body-politic proceed to