A discussion of some questions relating to tonsillotomy : read before the State Medical Society of Pennsylvania, at its meeting in 1882, and published in The Medical Record of February, 1883 ; Clinical remarks upon deflections of the nasal septum, with a presentation of two cases made before the Allegheny County Medical Society, at its meeting, November, 1883 / by W.H. Daly.

  • Daly, W. H. (William Hudson), 1842-1901.
Date:
[1883]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A discussion of some questions relating to tonsillotomy : read before the State Medical Society of Pennsylvania, at its meeting in 1882, and published in The Medical Record of February, 1883 ; Clinical remarks upon deflections of the nasal septum, with a presentation of two cases made before the Allegheny County Medical Society, at its meeting, November, 1883 / by W.H. Daly. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    It is to be inferred from this that Dr. Penrose is not alto- gether prepared to say his position has been strengthened by the testimony of the profession, and as the most striking ex- ample cited by the doctor was the one case of his medical friend, it is scarcely neeessary to pursue this side of the question further; but as to the opposite view, I will state that Dr. G. T. McC , of Pittsburgh, informs me that he had tonsillotomy performed when a child. He is now the father of two healthful children, and he, as well as his wife, are still young. Dr. Wm. Wallace, of Pittsburgh, in- forms me of a friend of his, G. W. PI , who was operated upon for enlarged tonsils when a child, who is now the father of three children. Dr. John Dickson, of Pittsburgh, whose name as an able sand experienced surgeon was a household word in Western Pennsylvania even before many of us were born, expressed to me his opinion that the “excision of the tonsils had as little to do with the power of procreation as the excision of the toe nails,” and he cited the instance of A. B , now of Allegheny City, whose tonsils he excised many years ago when the pres- ent man was a child, and who is now the father of a large family of healthful children. As to the effect of the operation on the female, he also spoke of the wife of Dr. Wm. M , of Beaver, upon whom he operated, and who has since been the mother of several children, as also one of the present daugh- ters-in-law of the doctor, whose tonsils he excised when she was a child but twelve years old, who has since been the mother of three children. Morell Mackenzie, one of the closest and most careful ob- servers, as well as one who has had probably greater oppor- tunities for observation than any other man who has practiced as a specialist of throat diseases in any period of time, says r “ The disease (hypertrophy of tonsils) not unfrequently becomes developed for the first time about the age of puberty, owing,, as some suppose, to a sympathetic connection between the sex- ual organs and the tonsils,”* and he says further, “Probably many of the cases in the earliest period were either congenital, or made their appearance soon afterbirth.” In a conversation some time ago on this subject with the accomplished laryngolo- gist, Dr. Elsiberg, he expressed to me the opinion that there was no relation whatever between the operation of tonsillotomy and any subsequent loss of virile power. *Crisp and Headland, Dublin Med. Press, vol. xx., p. 229, 1849.