Surgical treatment of the thorax is not a new field. Written records of thoracotomy in empyema and the recognition and drainage of pulmonary abscesses can be traced as far back as the time of Hippocrates in the fourth century B. C.1 Hippocrates gave a detailed description of the course of pneumonia with the development of empyema and the steps of thoracotomy for the drainage of empyema. He recognized the development of pulmonary suppuration and regarded aspiration as the cause of it. After the time of Hippocrates, the subject was neglected until the beginning of the sixteenth century A. D., when Schenk, in 1584,2 drew attention to this field. From that time on there were occasional reports of thoracotomies, and a great impetus was noticed with the introduction of methods of inducing artificial respiration by the Sauerbruch, the Brauer or the Meltzer technic. From this time on, thoracic surgery