In the following brief paper my main object is of furnish the text for a discussion, by this Section, to one of the most anxious and difficult problems in practical surgery, namely the question of interference or non-interference in cases of abdominal ailment, traumatic or otherwise.
A few recent cases in my practice, together with one or two pathologic specimens, which I wish to present for your consideration, will I trust furnish a reasonable excuse for my occupying a few minutes of the time of this important and busy section of the American Medical Association.
So much has been said and written about laparotomy for diagnostic and curative puposes in numerous abdominal conditions that further argument on the subject may seem, to some, to be superfluous. But over and above the great crucial question of operative interference it is generally admitted that individual cases of disease or injury possess a