Do we need our tonsils?
Humans have been taking our tonsils out for a remarkably long time. The first tonsil extractions date back thousands of years, to at least early Hindu medicine practices, and later to the Roman empire. With the advance of surgical methods, tonsillectomies became commonplace in the 20th century. They were once so widely recommended that, in 1921, a Manhattan hospital opened dedicated solely to performing the procedure in poor children. Wealthy donors funded the project under the belief that tonsil removal offered a universal benefit to the less fortunate. Though the tonsil hospital closed decades ago, tonsillectomies still remain one of the most prevalent childhood surgeries. By some assessments, rates have fallen since a peak in the 1970s. “We’re doing, per 100,000 people, probably 50 percent of what was done in the 1970s,” Ron Mitchell, a pediatric otolaryngologist and professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, tells Popular Science. But still about...