LOCAL ANÆSTHESIA WITH THE PHARYNGEAL COCAINE SYRINGE.Read by Title in the Section of Laryngology and Otology, at the Forty-second Annual Meeting of the American Medical Association, held at Washington, D. C., May, 1891.

Abstract

tonsillotome will cut only the tonsil and in suit¬ able cases it will remove as much of the organ as may be desired. This instrument commends itself, therefore, because of its strength, its sim¬ plicity, its safety, and its effectiveness. There no doubt exists some prejudice against the use of an anaesthetic in removing tonsils. In the course of a discussion at the Paris Surgical Society, Reclus29 referred to an unpublished case of fatal asphyxia during a tonsillotomy under chloroform. Avoid profound anaesthesia, remove the tonsils in quick succession, immediately turn the patient upon the face, and such p. misadven¬ ture cannot occur. Some years ago Ingals30 re¬ marked that removal of the tonsils is as serious a matter for a child as it would be for an adult to be hung. In young children, therefore, we should use ether or chloroform, not only to obviate mental and physical suffering, but, what is much more important, in order to enable us to explore the naso-pharynx at leisure, and if necessary to remove from that region those collections of lymphoid hypertrophy so often associated with simi¬ lar overgrowths between the palatine folds. 20 W. 31st street.