We all know that in the case of a quinsy when the gathering bursts there is not only local but also constitutional relief, and though the abscess burst in the night, unknown to the patient, and all the nasty discharge finds its way down the oesophagus into the stomach, no harm is done; the stomach must necessarily be endowed with no small amount of disinfecting power, for the patients suffer no harm, and soon call for food. The more I study the tonsils, the more I know of the organismic manifestations in them, the more I am impressed with their importance as vicars-general in pathological matters for the economy, in proof of which I adduce the fact that shapely normal tonsils are very rarely to be found in the adult, the reason being that during the upgrowing they have been sacrificed on the altar of the economy for its saving.
Hence it is that the pathological quality or qualities of a person can so often be read off, so to speak, like in a book, from the appearances of or on the tonsils.