REMOVAL OF TONSILS

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 68, 14 December 1920, Page 9

REMOVAL OF TONSILS

' : OPINION OF A PHYSICIAN

CLASSEDAB A CAPITAL , OPERATION

Most people are inclined to believe that an operation for the removal of the tonsils from the throat is a simple ono, involving no danger. That is not the case if Dr. Richard B. Faulkner, of New York city," is to be believed. Writing to tho "Etude" (a musical paper), ho says: '■I oppose the routine removal of tho tonsil—just the same as I would pppose the unnecessary removal of tho eye. The same standard iii education that requires an Operator on the eye to have-full knowlodge of the anatomy and physiology of that organ'should apply with equal iorco to a.n operator on tho tonsil. It is, pathetically strange that educated and experienced physicians are led 60 easily and so far astray , from the path of conscientious dnty as to sanction the surgeon's destruction of tho tonsil while, at tho same time, the surgeon confesses to his ignorance of- its function. And it 18 6trange"also' that the intelligent and en lightened portion of the publio does not ariso .rinder such circumstances and demand that tho operation shall be stopped. "I oppose the removal of the tonsils from the voice viewpoint becauSe LampertV Cappiani, and Sebastiani observed that it always injured the voice; beoauso Garcia and Lilli Lehmann say that the voice can never he improved by surgical measures; Wcause Schrimann-Heink says that more voice? are ruinod by .ignorant 1 throat specialists-than by use. 'Chiari, the greatest of the great surgeons, says that the tonsils should never bo removed from professional singers. . "I oppose • the removal of the tonsils from the medical viewpoint, bccauso of the frightful mortality,-' the appalling list of accidants, and the fact, that ninety-five per centum >of diseased tonsils 'can bo cured-by medical treatment. •• "Do I oonsider the removal of the "tonsil to 'bo ■injurious?' Ye?, dccidedly. The tonsil-is a natural'organ, ah intimate part of a natural throat. You have no right to destroy _ it. - To destroy the organ is to-destroy ita function. To destroy tho natural function of an organ- is an injury. If the tonsil is diseasodj it should be treated, not destroyed, on' the same principle' that you would treat a diseased eye. Removal of the tonsil is a capital operation; more dangerous than amputation of the leg at the hip joint, according to Professor Maurice Richardson of Harvard University; more fatal than removal of the appendix; and it also involves the destruction of-values in the mcchanism of speech and song. • "What are the consequences o$ removal ? More deaths attend upon tho removal of tinsils .than upon , any other surgical operation, and their.removal is -followed by the most .appalling list of accidents and porm.incnt impairment of health of any operation in tho.-history of snrgery; "The many deaths,' the numerous accidents, the unskilled-, army, of operators, and the sharp Qriticism of men who stand high as medical authorities' : added to the,strong.-protest wholp voice profession and of thoumnds of intelligent laymen', make'the radical revision of tonsillar 'treatment -.an. nrgerit and absolute necessity. ; \ ' over three years, I have been engaged .in original research work covering tho questions'of the tonsil?. .I; have,succeeded in collecting an enseihblo of the world's best judgment, including,'in the voice profession, fliat of Sistnor Lamperti, Mine. Cappiani, Mme. Lehmann, Mmo. Mott. ,Signor Sebastiani, Shakespeare, De Rpszke, Sir Charles .Santley. Mmc. Adelina Patti, 3tme. Clara Kathleen Rogers, Mme. Schumann-Heink. Jfme. Tetrazzini, Jtme. Fre'mstadj- S. S. Curry, .Bonci, Bispham, White, George. Fergusson, and others<V .