What’s the use of tonsils and appendix? (From Lancashire Telegraph)
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What’s the use of tonsils and appendix?
2:41pm Friday 27th February 2009 in
Q. What’s the point of our tonsils and appendix? They only seem to give us grief.
A. They are both part of our lymphatic system defences.
When they meet germs, which is obviously common in the throat and the bowel, they snap into activity, producing masses of lymphocytes (‘white cells’) that fight the infection.
Most of the time they win the battle, and we don’t notice they are there. Occasionally, they don’t and you catch tonsillitis or appendicitis. That’s when you notice the grief – not when they are quietly doing their job.
We were taught that the first appendix to be removed in Britain was a Royal one – from King Edward the Seventh just before his planned coronation.
The ceremony had to be postponed because of it. I’m not sure that he was really the first, so I’d like to hear from any medical historian who knows.
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