German Surgical Congress
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chirurgie held its fortyseventh annual meeting in April. In spite of the very unfavorable economic conditions, the attendance at the congress was good—almost up to normal. The speakers on anatomicopathologic problems were Professor Aschoff, Freiburg; Professor Enderlen, Heidelberg, and Professor Hotz, Basel. According to Aschoff, cholelithiasis is an affection of the extrahepatic biliary passages—mainly of the gallbladder. To understand the pathogenesis, a knowledge of the anatomy and the function of the gallbladder is essential. We must distinguish carefully between the gallbladder proper, whose function it is to inspissate the bile by resorption, and the conduction system, which begins at the neck of the gallbladder. The gallbladder, as compared with the bile ducts, is characterized by its abundance of muscle tissue and its lack of elastic tissue. The cystic duct, which leads from the neck of the gallbladder, may be divided into a proximal