plane of cleavage upon the capsule is the most important and difficult part of the operation of tonsillectomy. It is this part of the operation that the new knife carries out most perfectly with one sweep around the tonsil. With a straight, sharp-pointed scalpel it is often difficult to make an exactly continuous incision of the same depth around the circumference of the tonsil. Uncut fibers thus left prevent the pushing back of the pillars and the exposing of a clean capsule, and one is led to think that the tonsil is adherent. A