Diseases of the gastrointestinal tract involve problems which require both the single handed skill of the surgeon, as in acute appendicitis, and the cooperative experience and judgment of the gastroenterologist and surgeon, as in the ulcerative diseases. The era of competitive claims from these two medical groups has passed; each needs the other and each gives wholehearted acclaim to the other's accomplishments in the difficult problems of such diseases as peptic ulcer, ulcerative colitis and cancer. An evaluation of attainments in any form of therapy requires constant surveillance of end results, and in this function the gastroenterologist with his close follow-up contacts may rightly be a guiding influence. This is especially true since any group of statistics concerning end results in disease of the gastrointestinal tract must fluctuate unfavorably because of the tendency of such diseases as ulcer to recur, sometimes many years after operative or medical treatment. A permanent