=TONSILITIS= (_Follicular Tonsilitis_).--Tonsilitis is a germ disease and is contagious. Exposure to cold and wet and to germ-laden air renders persons more liable to attacks. It is more likely to occur in young people, especially those who have already suffered from the disease and whose tonsils are chronically enlarged, and is most prevalent in this country in spring. The disease appears to be often associated with rheumatism. Tonsilitis begins much like _grippe_, with fever, headache, backache and pain in the limbs, sore throat, and pain in swallowing. On inspecting the throat (with the tongue held down firmly by a spoon handle and the mouth widely open in a good light, preferably sunlight) the tonsils will be seen to be swollen, much reddened, and dotted over with pearl-white spots. Sometimes only one tonsil is so affected, but the other is likely to become inflamed also. Occasionally there may be only one spot of white on the tonsil. The swelling differs in degree; in some cases the tonsils may be so swollen as almost to meet together, but there is no danger of suffocation from obstruction of the throat, as occurs in diphtheria and very rarely in quinsy. The characteristic appearance then consists in large, red tonsils covered with white spots. The spots represent discharge which fills in the depressions in the tonsil. The fever lasts three days to a week, generally, and then subsides together with the other symptoms. With apparent tonsilitis there must always be kept in mind the possibility of diphtheria, and, unfortunately, it is at times impossible for the most acute physician to distinguish between these two diseases by the appearances of the throat alone. In order to do so it is necessary to rub off some of the discharge from the tonsils, and examine, microscopically, the kind of germs contained therein. The general points of difference are: in diphtheria the tonsils are usually completely covered with a gray membrane. In the early stage, or in mild cases of diphtheria, there may be only a spot on one tonsil, but it is apt to be yellow in color, and is thicker than the white spots in tonsilitis. These are the difficult cases. Ordinarily, in diphtheria, not only are the tonsils covered with a grayish membrane, but this soon extends to the surrounding parts of the throat, whereas in tonsilitis the spots are always found on the tonsil alone. The white spot can be readily wiped off with a little absorbent cotton wound on a stick, in the case of tonsilitis, but in diphtheria the membrane can be removed in this way only with difficulty, and leaves underneath a rough, bleeding surface. The breath is apt to have a bad odor in diphtheria, and the temperature is lower (not much over 100 deg. F.) than in tonsilitis, when it is frequently 101 deg. to 103 deg. F. Notwithstanding these points, it is never safe for a layman to undertake the diagnosis when a physician's services are obtainable. On the other hand, when this is not possible