The literature on intra-abdominal hernia is composed for the most part of individual case reports, studies of limited groups of cases and reviews of special types of hernia. Moynihan and Dobson described various peritoneal fossae and made a fairly complete review of the cases of intra-abdominal hernia reported up to 1906. Short reviewed the cases reported between 1906 and 1915. In 1925 Short also reviewed cases in which there were clinical symptoms. No complete survey of the subject has been offered since 1906. Such a survey appears to us timely. In this article we propose to review the entire subject of intra-abdominal hernia, report a unique case and make conclusions based on the experience with our own case and on the records of previously reported cases. We believe that such information, concretely assembled, will be of value to others. REPORT OF CASE The patient was a 58 year old man,