Tonsillitis

Tonsillitis (QUINSY). Inflammation of the tonsils often results from exposure to cold or wet, and when the tendency to this form of mischief becomes developed in early life the disease is apt to recur from time to time. An attack of tonsillitis is usually ushered in by marked febrile disturbance, and the temperature may attain a considerable degree of elevation, one or both tonsils become swollen, there is marked difficulty in swallowing, tenderness behind the angles of the jaw, the tone of the voice is altered, and there may be deafness. Sometimes a collection of matter forms in the substance of the tonsil, and in such cases the symptoms are very distressing to the patient until such time as the abscess bursts. The treatment of tonsillitis consists in maintaining rest, giving nutritious liquid food, causing the patient to gargle (in the early stages with warm milk or black currant tea, later with some form of astringent gargle), and administering tonics. During convalescence it is important that a liberal diet should be administered, and port wine may often be taken with advantage. In cases where the tonsils become permanently enlarged as the result of repeated attacks of inflammation, it is usually advisable to have the hypertrophied structures removed.