As the door closed behind her the mother turned to Dr. Strong.
“Is she going to be deaf?” she asked breathlessly.
“Of course not,” he reassured her. “That will be taken care of. What did you see above the back of the throat?”
“Little things like tiny stalactites hanging down.”
“Adenoids.”
“Where could she have gotten adenoids?” cried Mrs. Clyde.
“From her remotest imaginable ancestor, probably.”
“Why, aren’t they a disease?”
“No. An inheritance. The race has always had them. Probably they’re vestigial salivary glands, the use of which we’ve outgrown. Unfortunately they may overdevelop and block up the air-passages. Then they have to come out.”
For the first time in the conference Grandma Sharpless gathered force and speech.