The tonsil and adenoid question as seen by the internist.

Abstract

Of how many operations can it be truthfully said that they are neither dreadful in the doing nor melancholy in the event? This unique pronouncement, which was intended to popularize the removal of tonsils by ligature, is found in the Critical Inquiry into the Present State of Surgery by Samuel Sharp, surgeon to Guy's Hospital, 1733 to 1757. Sharp's work is cited in an article by Mollison. 1 The tonsils, being easily visible and readily accessible, must have been among the very first of our internal organs to be removed by the surgeon's knife. Wise, 2 in his Review of the History of Medicine, speaks of the Asiatic Indians, who were highly skilled in medicine 1,000 years B.C., or 460 years before Hippocrates. These Asiatics removed troublesome tonsils saying, They are to be seized between the blades of a forcep and drawn forward, and with a semicircular knife the third