Suppressive Surgical Treatment of Tonsillitis and Enlarged Adenoids
The following paragraphs are taken from an article in the ~Nature
Cure Magazine~ May, 1909, titled "Surgery for Tonsillitis and
Adenoids." They will throw further interesting light on the
dangerous consequences of suppressing acute and subacute diseases.
"The tonsils are excreting glands. Nature has created them for the
elimination of impurities from the body. Acute, subacute and chronic
tonsillitis accompanied by enlargement and cheesy decay of the
tonsils means that these glands have been habitually congested with
morbid matter and poisons, that they have had more work to do than
they could properly attend to.
"These glandular structures constitute a valuable part of the
drainage system of the organism. If the blood is poisoned through
overeating and faulty food combinations, or with scrofulous,
venereal or psoriatic poisons, the tonsils are called upon, along
with other organs, to eliminate these morbid taints. Is it any
wonder that frequently they become inflamed and subject to decay?
What, however, can be gained by destroying them with iodine or
extirpating them with the surgeon's scissors or the 'guillotine'?
"Because your servants are weakened by overwork, would you kill
them? Because the drains in your house are too small to carry off
the waste, would you blockade or remove them? Still, this is the
orthodox philosophy of the medical schools applied to the management
of the human body.
". . . In case of any morbid discharge from the body, wherever it
be, whether through hemorrhoids, open sores, ulcers or through
tonsils, scrofulous glands, etc., a fontanelle has been established
to which and through which systemic poisons make their way. If such
an outlet be blocked by medical or surgical treatment the stream of
morbid matter has to seek another escape or else the poisons will
accumulate somewhere in the body.
"Fortunate is the patient when such an escape can be established,
because wherever in the system morbid excretions, suppressed by
medical treatment, concentrate, there will inevitably be found the
seat of chronic disease.
"After the tonsils have been removed, the morbid matter which they
were eliminating usually finds the nearest and easiest outlet
through the adenoid tissues and nasal membranes. These now take up
the work of 'vicarious' elimination and, in their turn, become
hyperactive and inflamed.
"Sometimes it happens that the adenoid tissues become affected
before the tonsils. In that case, also, relief through the surgeon's
knife is sought and then the process is reversed: after the adenoids
have been removed, the tonsils develop chronic catarrhal conditions.
"When both tonsils and adenoids have been removed, the nasal
membranes will, in turn, become congested and swollen. Often the
mucous elimination increases to an alarming degree, and frequently
polyps and other growths make their appearance or the turbinated
bones soften and swell and obstruct the nasal passages, thus again
making the patient a 'mouth breather.'
"But in vain does Nature protest against local symptomatic
treatment. Science has nothing to learn from her.
"When the nose takes up the work of vicarious elimination, the same
mode of treatment is resorted to. The mucous membranes of the nose
are now swabbed and sprayed with antiseptics and astringents, or
'burned' by cauterizers, electricity, etc. The polyps are cut out,
and frequently parts of the turbinated bone and septum as well, in
order to open the air passages.
"Now, surely, the patient must be cured. But, strange to say, new
and more serious troubles arise. The posterior nasal passages and
the throat are now affected by chronic catarrhal conditions and
there is much annoyance from phlegm and mucous discharges which drop
into the throat. These catarrhal conditions frequently extend to the
mucous membranes of stomach and intestines.
"When the drainage system of the nose and the nasopharyngeal
cavities has been completely destroyed, the impurities must either
travel upward into the brain or downward into the glandular
structures of the neck, thence into the bronchi and the tissues of
the lungs.
"If the trend be upward, to the brain, the patient grows nervous and
irritable or becomes dull and apathetic. How often is a child
reprimanded or even punished for laziness and inattention when it
cannot help itself? In many instances the morbid matter affects
certain centers in the brain and causes nervous conditions,
hysteria, St. Vitus' dance, epilepsy, etc. In children the
impurities frequently find an outlet through the eardrums in the
form of pus-like discharges. This may frequently avert inflammation
of the brain, meningitis, imbecility, insanity or infantile
paralysis.
"If the trend of the suppressed impurities and poisons be downward,
it often results in the hypertrophy and degeneration of the
lymphatic glands of the neck. In such cases the suppressive
treatment, by drugs or knife, is again applied instead of
eliminative and curative measures. The scrofulous poisons,
suppressed and driven back from the diseased glands in the neck, now
find lodgment in the bronchi and lungs, where they accumulate and
form a luxuriant soil for the growth of the bacilli of pneumonia and
tuberculosis.
"In other cases, the vocal organs become seriously affected by
chronic catarrhal conditions, abnormal growths and in later stages
by tuberculosis. Many a fine voice has been ruined in this way.
"The prevention and the cure of all these ailments lie not in local
symptomatic treatment and suppression by drugs or knife, but in the
rational and natural treatment of the body as a whole."