Within the last year I have operated on three deafmute children for the removal of adenoid growths and enlarged tonsils. I propose to report these cases, and to examine the questions: To what extent are adenoid growths and enlarged tonsils a cause of deaf-mutism? and What may be accomplished by their removal? Two of my cases were boys, aged 8 and 9 years, and the third was a girl aged 3½ years.
Case 1.
—P. H., aged 9 years. Both his maternal and paternal grandparents were cousins. There was a history of tuberculosis on the mother's side, but both father and mother were healthy. Besides his brother there had been but one other child in the family, who died at the age of twenty months, of stomach trouble. As a baby, this boy was small, weighing only 4½ pounds at birth, and he was brought through infancy with difficulty. His