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Under this somewhat sensational title the author reports several casual observations of tonsillitis occurring in a critical moment of the patients' life which were obviously not without connection with the patients' total condition. In the most carefully observed of the cases the material consists mainly of a record of dreams during a week's time, which are freely, but inadequately, interpreted according to their manifest content and of a consideration of the current conflicts. The psychological understanding does not go far beyond the 'secondary gain' of the disease. Nevertheless it shows clearly the severe conflicts around taking the father's place, getting married and having children, and the strong and unmistakable castration-anxiety and imagery linked up with it. The patient, who was about to be engaged not long after his father's death, apparently in posthumous obedience to him, ultimately dropped every idea of an engagement. It is interesting to note, that in similar earlier conflict-situations the patient at one time had an accident, another time he broke a tooth. The other cases and those quoted from other authors are, in general, of a similar kind.