On the Advantages of Enucleation of the Tonsils over Their Removal by the Guillotine

The question of the desirability of removing chronically enlarged and inflamed tonsils has now almost ceased to be asked, at any rate among the medical profession. Twenty years ago, however, the matter was one of hot dispute, and medical men seriously argued that the operation was harmful, inefficacious and almost impious?inasmuch as it sought to remove organs which had been designed and placed by Providence for some good purpose. Thus an anonymous writer in the Medical Chronicle maintained that the tonsils prevented infection of the system by contagious germs, that they maintained the good quality of the voice, and that they were essential for the attainment of sexual fertility. Further, that after their removal they often grew again, and that patients were obliged to submit to many repeated operations when their removal was attempted. Mackenzie, in a letter to the same paper, and Semon, in a long article in the St. Thomas's Hospital Reports (1883), answered all these fallacious statements, and from that time to the present the indications for removal of chronically enlarged and inflamed tonsils, as well as the method of their removal, have never been seriously called in question. Briefly stated, these indications are that all tonsils should be