I say nothing about a dreadful form of inflammation of the mouth which ends in mortification, because it is of infinite rarity except among the destitute poor, and even among them it is very seldom seen except as a consequence of measles, or of some kind of fever. It is only among the very poor that I have seen it, and even among them it has come under my notice only ten times in the whole course of my life. There is a very common but inaccurate opinion that sore-mouth in childhood is often produced by the employment of mercury. I never yet saw a sore mouth due to the administration of mercury in any child before the first set of teeth were entirely cut; and never but once out of 70,000 cases which have come under my notice in hospital or dispensary practice, have I seen in children of any age under twelve any affection of the mouth from mercury sufficiently severe to cause me a moment's anxiety. =Quinsey=, or inflammatory sore-throat, has in it nothing specially peculiar to the child, but occurs at all ages with the same symptoms. It is, however, comparatively rare under twelve years of age, and is almost always less severe in childhood than at or after puberty, while I scarcely remember to have met with it under five years of age. This circumstance attaches special importance to sore-throat in young children, since it will usually be found to betoken the approach of scarlet fever, or of diphtheria, rather than the existence of simple inflammation, or quinsey. While this fact affords a reason for most scrupulous attention to every case of sore-throat in children, and this in proportion to the tender age of the child, needless alarm is sometimes caused by the appearance on the inflamed tonsils of numerous white specks, which are at once supposed to be diphtheritic. I have already pointed out the distinction between the two conditions when speaking of diphtheria, but the matter is so important that I will repeat what I then said. These spots are not in the form of a uniform white patch or membrane, which, on being removed, leaves the surface beneath red, raw, and often slightly bleeding; but they are rather distinct circular spots, firmly adherent to the tonsil, wiped off with difficulty, and evidently exuding from the openings of little pits, blind pouches, or glands, with which the surface of the tonsil is beset. I do not advise any parent to rest satisfied with his or her judgment on this matter the first time that they notice this appearance; but there are children with whom slight sore-throat is always attended by this condition, and others in whom the tonsils are habitually enlarged, and seldom free from these white spots flecking their surface.