It is not with the intention of presenting any new method of diagnosis or treatment that I have prepared this paper. It is rather to direct attention more forcibly to a group of conditions which, although not of frequent occurrence, are encountered sufficiently often to deserve more attention than is usually given them.
Specifically, by reporting a few cases that I have had under my care I will stress the fact that any one doing abdominal surgery is apt to encounter an inflammatory condition or tumor which, on superficial examination, appears to be within the peritoneal cavity, whereas careful study will show it to be extraperitoneal.
The general treatment and the surgical approach are different in extraperitoneal and intraperitoneal conditions, and failure to differentiate between these two groups of cases may result in serious consequences to the patient. On three occasions I have been asked to see patients who were