Then I grasped the child's head with my left hand and tried to get the wooden tongue depressor between her teeth. She fought,with clenched teeth, desperately! But now I also had grown furious——at a child. I tried to hold myself down but I couldn't. I know how to expose a throat for inspection. And I did my best. When finally I got the wooden spatula behind the last teeth and just the point of it into the mouth cavity, she opened up for an instant but before I could see anything she came down again and gripped the wooden blade between her molars. She reduced it to splinters before I could get it out again.