he lightest touch and plunge
the whole body into a scrimmage. Their position is a little difficult to
describe to one not familiar with the anatomy of the throat, especially
as they cannot be seen except with a laryngeal mirror; but it may be
roughly stated as in the middle of the roof of the throat, just at the
back of the nostrils, and above the soft palate. From this coign of
vantage they are in position to produce serious disturbances of two of
our most important functions,--respiration and digestion,--and three out
of the five senses,--smell, taste, and hearing.

We will begin with their most frequent and most serious injurious
effect, though not the earliest,--the impairment of the child's power of
attention and intelligence. So well known is their effect in this
respect that there is scarcely an intelligent and progressive teacher
nowadays who is not thoroughly posted on adenoids. Some of them will
make a snap diagnosis as promptly and almost as accurately as a
physician; and when once they suspect their presence, they will leave
no stone unturned to secure an examination of the child by a competent
physician, and the removal of the growths, if present. They consider it
a waste of time to endeavor to teach a child weighted with this
handicap. How keenly awake they are to their importance is typified by
the remark of a prominent educator five or six years ago:--

"When I hear a teacher say that a child is stupid, my first instinctive
conclusion is either that the child has adenoids, or that the teacher is
incompetent."

The lion's share of their influence upon the child's intelligence is
brought about in a somewhat unexpected and even surprising manner, and
that is by the _effects of the growths upon his hearing_. You will
recall that this third tonsil was situated at the highest point in the
roof of the pharynx, or back of the throat. The first effect of its
enlargement is naturally to block the posterior opening of the nostrils.
But it has another most serious vantage-ground for harm in its peculiar
position. Only about three-fourths of an inch below it upon either side
open the mouths of the Eustachian tubes, the little funnels which carry
air from the throat out into the drum-cavity of the ear. You have
frequently had practical demonstrations of their existence, by the
well-known sensation, when blowing your nose vigorously, of feeling
something go "pop" in the ear. This sensation was simply due to a bubble