Death from bronchopneumonia following tonsillectomy is, fortunately, rare, as shown by Martin,1 who reports three fatalities in 14,000 operations.
The surgical risk in the first two cases here reported was obviously great, and this clinical study was made with the hope of learning how to lessen this risk. For the sake of brevity, only important and positive findings are recorded.
REPORT OF CASES
Case 1.—A man, aged 33, married, was admitted to hospital, Oct. 8, 1917. The family history was negative. The patient had recurrent furunculosis and a cardiac murmur since childhood. The murmur may have been due to hemorrhagic chickenpox or to the grip. Syphilis was diagnosed in January, 1917, and mercury and neo-arsphenamin were administered; the Wassermann reaction was weakly positive on October 9.The patient complained of nervous exhaustion, insufficient sleep, frequent violent headaches, causing intense suffering, and recurring severe epistaxis; in one attack he lost approximately