e or more octaves; but it is a capital operation and a
dangerous one in which a fatal result is by no means a remote
possibility.

The object of this interesting paper, it is pointed out, is not to
assail operation for definite and legitimate cause, but to warn against
the "busy internist"--the hospital surgeon--too busy for careful
differential diagnosis--and his "accommodating tonsillectomist" who is
"in the business for revenue only." But the onus for the existing
deplorable state of affairs he lays frankly upon the shoulders of the
teachers and insists that the cure of the evil is largely educational.
"When," says he, "_pre-eminent authority proclaims in lecture and text
book as indisputable truth the relationship between a host of diseases
and the tonsils of the child and advises the removal of the glands as a
routine method of procedure, what can we expect of the student whose
mind is thus poisoned at the very fountainhead of his medical education
by ephemeral theory that masquerades so cheerily in the garb of
indestructible fact_?" "How," he exclaims, "are we to offset the
irresponsibility of the responsible?" But we hear on all sides--"Look at
the results." Results? Here is a partial list from the practice--not of
the ignorant, but of the most experienced and skilled: Death from
hemorrhage and shock, development of latent tuberculosis, laceration and
other serious injuries of the palate and pharyngeal muscles, great
contraction of the parts, removal of one barrier of infection, severe
infection of wound, septicemia, or bacterial infection, troublesome
cicatrices, suppurative otitis media and other ear affections, troubles
of voice and vision, ruin of singing voice, emphysemia, or destruction
of the tissues, septic infarct,--infected arterial obstruction,
pneumonia, increased susceptibility to throat disease, pharyngeal quinsy
and last, but not least tonsillitis!

The trenchant and tragic article concludes with the expression of the
hope that the day is not far distant when not only the profession but
the public shall demand that this senseless slaughter be stopped. "Is
not this day of medical and moral preaching and uplifting," it is asked,
"a fitting one in which to lift the public out of the atmosphere into
which it has been drugged, and as to the reckless tonsillectomist, a
proper time to apply the remedy of the _referendum_ and _recall_. It has
come to a point when it is not only a burning question to the