AFTER reviewing the experience with traumatic rupture of the bronchus,1 our interest was aroused as to the possibility of reinstituting function in the atelectatic lung. We noted, contrary to the usual assumption, that in not a single case with complete stenosis of the main-stem bronchus for periods up to 26 years had suppurative disease of the atelectatic lung developed. In the few cases with partial stenosis secondary to the traumatic rupture, secondary bronchiectasis had developed. Holinger and his associates2 report on a patient who had excision of the atelectatic lung three years after complete occlusion of the bronchus. There was no gross or microscopic evidence of infection or morphologic change which might be incompatible with reestablishment of respiratory and circulatory function. Hodes, Johnson, and Atkins3 similarly present photomicrographs of a lung resected after at least three months of atelectasis in which fibrosis, bronchiectasis, or degenerative vascular changes