MANY POSTOPERATIVE complications are favorably affected by prompt ambulation and other accelerated modifications in traditional convalescent care. On the contrary, the incidence of thrombosis in the deep veins of the lower extremities and of pulmonary infarction due to small, nonfatal emboli is unaltered. Wounds heal kindly, and the rate of recurrence following hernioplasties of all types is significantly less among promptly ambulatory patients than among those who remain inactive in bed for ten to fourteen days after operation. The data herewith submitted are offered in support of these assertions. CLINICAL MATERIAL The study is based on a critical survey of all the cases in which hernioplasty was performed at the Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital during the sixteen years from 1933 through 1948. These include cases of inguinal, femoral, epigastric, umbilical and ventral hernias, various combinations of these with inguinal ruptures, diaphragmatic and internal hernias and 2 cases of abscesses in