The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-11-16
THE RATIONAL CONCEPTION OF
 AnENATnC

We were just ready for the operation, which decided upon, when the bell rang. the other day. I suspect this scheme of ringing off is one of the censors, for dang if it doesn't go ding dong just as get warmed up and on the verge of saying something
 The typal "adenoid facies" open mouth stupid appearance, featured in ancient doctor books sufficient motive for perpetrating an operation, especially if the child seemed less bright than nurse or teacher thought he should | be, has led to many useless or harmful adenoid operations in those crude shops that appeal to the credulity of the public under the name of "clinic," "dispensary' or shospitali any dodge whereby the brass surgeon can get a little practice without honestly using his own name in the racket. You see, it is all right for him to employ any means to catch suckers so long he keeps his own name out of it. A "clinic" or hospital may resort to all the wiles of quackery for attracting trade, when in fact the 'clinic' consists of huddle of three or four ambitious young doctors, or the "hos- ptap' is nothing but a close corporation of a dozen twenty doctors.
 Mouth breathing and irregularities of the teeth and the formation of the jaws. and such faults as pigeon breast, though generally as- socated with nasal obstruction, by no means spell adenoid enlargement. The obstruction of the free passage of air throughethe nose is as likely to be due to simple chronic rhinitis, thickened turbinate, polyp or foreign body.
 In no case can physician be reasonably sure patient has adenoids until he has felt the adenoid with his finger or seen it directly with his eye indirectly by means of throat
  adenoid mass through the nose but always it is simple matter for the physician to inspect the vault of the pharynx by retracting the soft palate and using suitable mirror in the hreat. Beware of the quack who assumes adenoids are present without troubling to make suchc an Inspection or, what is less comfortable for the patient inserting q finger through the mouth into the vault of the pharynx and feeling the adenoid mass.
 To-day good physicians advise removal of adenoids only when the patient suffers some definite pathological effects. These are CD constant or frequently recurring coryza or run ming at the nose with or without hacking cough, (2) deafness (3) kernels (enlarged lymph nodes or "glands'D on the sides of the neck.
 The modern conception of the tonsil and adenoid question is radically different from that of thirty years ago. We know that faulty nutrition in infancy and early childhood has much to do With the state of the adenoid tis- sues in every part of the body, and with the development of the teeth and the bones. Inad- equate rations of Vitamin and perhaps other vitamins will permit not only rickets but other growth defects, and there is good reason to think that this same nutritional disorder is responsible for the fualty development of the jaws and the palate and the nasal passages AND the adenoids
 See that infants and children receive plenty milk, ask your own physician your local health officer whether the milk available in your community is safe for a child.