A desmoid may well be termed a pathologic enigma or riddle, and because of its peculiarities there are many differences of opinion as to its cause, pathologic manifestations and treatment. For example, physiologic trauma has been given as the exciting factor in the development of a desmoid, the anterior abdominal wall as its most common location and childbirth as the particular type of physiologic trauma producing it. While 87 per cent of these tumors are found in women and only 13 per cent in men, it is difficult to explain why desmoids are so rare, since in the United States alone there are about 130,000,000 persons, practically all of whom have been brought into the world by the mechanics of parturition alone. But this is only one of many apparent paradoxic statements found in the descriptions of these tumors, and the discussions of their cause. The name "desmoid" was first