EARLY HISTORY OF GASTROSTOMY PRESUMABLY the first gastrostomies were the accidental results of trauma and were mere curiosities, but their occurrence suggested the possibility of intentional creation of such artificial fistulas for the relief of esophageal obstruction. Sédillot1 is generally conceded to have been the first surgeon to perform gastrostomy, but his patients, operated on in 1849 and 1853, failed to survive the immediate postoperative period. To Sydney Jones,2 a London surgeon, must go the credit for having first successfully created an artificial gastric fistula since his patient, operated on in 1875, survived for forty days after the operation. The first attempt at gastrostomy in the United States was made in 1870 by Maury.3 His patient survived only fourteen hours. In 1879 Staton4 in North Carolina operated on a child near starvation consequent on stricture of the esophagus due to the ingestion of lye, and the