Since 1912, every tonsil and adenoid removed at operation in the Johns Hopkins Hospital has been studied histologically. While no attempt is made to examine the entire tonsil or adenoid by serial sections, the blocks selected for microscopic section and the number of slides obtained for study are uniform throughout the whole series of 3,260 cases. This paper deals entirely with those cases in which a tuberculous lesion was discovered in the tonsil or adenoid; other pathologic conditions of a nontuberculous nature that were noted in this study will be presented in a subsequent publication.
Virchow,1 in 1864, made the statement that tuberculosis of the tonsil is a rare occurrence, and that this tissue is extraordinarily immune to tuberculous infection. For a period of fifteen years following Virchow's publication, no experimental or pathologic observations were made on tuberculosis of the lymphoid tissue in the pharynx, with the exception of