Operations for the restoration of function in joints with bony ankylosis have not as yet become standardized, but the success attained within recent years by a small number of surgeons in Europe and America shows decided progress in this field of surgery. In general, there is a paucity of facts regarding technic, aftertreatment and results, and there is also a confusion of methods employed, as evidenced by a recent symposium before the International Society of Surgery.1Groves compiled, from twenty English surgeons, 182 operations, but from an analysis of these it is apparent that ninety-two were excisions or so-called nearthroses, and only ninety could be classed as true arthroplasties, by which is meant a surgical procedure to reconstruct the component parts of a normal joint, and not the removal of a mass of bone for the sole purpose of producing pseudarthrosis or an ununited fracture. Unfortunately, the American opinion