In approaching the subject of minor surgery of obstructions at the vesical outlet, one is reminded of the accomplishments of Bottini, Young and Caulk, who have been the ones most instrumental in demonstrating the fact that the so-called hypertrophied prostate gland can be influenced to retrogress in size and even resume normal proportions. We have all observed the marked shrinkage in large prostates which so regularly occurs in the interval of a two step prostatectomy, and it is an interesting fact, to which Caulk has already drawn attention, that this phenomenon regularly follows resection of the intruding lobes or contracted sphincter. It is obvious that the phenomenon could not occur so consistently were the prostatic lobes the seat of a true hypertrophy. The fact that this change does occur forms the basis on which rests the rationale of minor surgery of the prostate gland. Though this paper is intended only