process,
permanent disfiguration of face, and permanent deformity of chest and
lungs.

2. Will the growth recur? In a few cases it does recur; frequently
either because it was not desirable to make a complete removal of the
adenoid tissue or because the surgeon was careless. If the growths do
recur, then they must be removed again.

3. Is the operation a dangerous one?

4. Is an anaesthetic necessary?

5. Will the operation cure the child of all its troubles? These
questions are best answered by the process and results of an "adenoid
party," which was given especially for the benefit of this book, every
step and symptom of which were carefully studied.

The seven children pictured here were discovered by their school
physician to have moderately large adenoid growths,--one boy having
enlarged tonsils also.

[Illustration: MOUTH BREATHERS IMMEDIATELY AFTER "ADENOID
PARTY"]

The picture on page 46 was taken by flash light at 2.30 P.M., January
15, 1908. At 3 P.M. the principal escorted these children into the
operating room at Vanderbilt Clinic. The doctor examined the throat and
nose of each child, entered the name and age of each, together with his
diagnosis, on a clinic card, sending each child into the next room
after examination. He then called the first boy and explained that it
would hurt, but that it would be over in a minute. The principal stood
by and told him to be brave and remember the five cents he could have
for ice cream afterwards. The clinic nurse tied a large towel about him
and put him in her lap; with one hand she held his clasped hands, while
the other held his head back. The doctor then took the little
instrument--the curette--and pushed it up back of the soft palate, and
with one twist brought out the offending spongy lump. The boy's head
was immediately held over a basin of running water. He was so occupied
with spitting out the blood that rushed down to choke him that he
hadn't time to cry before the acute pain had ceased. The rush of cool
air through his nostrils was such a pleasurable sensation that he
smiled as the school nurse escorted him out into the hall to wait for
his companions. At 3.30 P.M. all seven children were out in the hall,
all seven mouths were closed, and all seven faces were clothed with the
sleepy, peaceful expression that comes with rest from the prolonged
labor of trying to get enough air. At 3.45 P.M. they had been all
reexamined by the doctor, and a fe