In 1910 Kolischer introduced and advocated surgical diathermy for the removal of inoperable malignant tumors. In 1913 we employed this method for the removal of two cancers of the colon and three of the rectum in very old persons. The results were excellent. For a number of years we used surgical diathermy in cases in which operation was impossible— when the tumor was fixed, when the patient was very old (in the seventies) or when there was some other contraindication to a radical surgical procedure, such as disease of the heart or lungs. The results in these isolated cases were so satisfactory that for the past seven years we have used the procedure in practically all cases of cancer in the rectum up to the sigmoid colon which could be reached from below by the glass tube method, which we shall describe later. Clinically, the results of the treatment