Circulatory disturbances brought about by the development of scar tissue in the pericardium came into the domain of surgical therapy two or three decades ago. The accomplishments in this field of surgery are of such a high order that they clamor for general recognition and application. The fact that patients, bedridden because of circulatory failure, have been restored to active life makes it just as incumbent on the physician to recognize circulatory disturbances due to pericardial scar as to recognize appendicitis, intestinal obstruction or any other condition that can be cured by operation. The treatment of adhesive pericarditis by operation was suggested by Weill and by Delorme at the close of the last century. Their suggestions to incise the adhesions or to decorticate the heart were not greeted with approval until 1910, when this operation was actually carried out by Hallopeau.1A simpler type of operation for the relief