The swelling of the arm which may follow radical mammectomy for cancer of the breast is still a problem that occasionally confronts every surgeon who performs this operation, though for some reason the literature is singularly barren of any recent discussion of it. The classic contribution to the subject was made by Halsted1in 1921, in a paper entitled. "The Swelling of the Arm After Operation for Cancer of the Breast —Elephantiasis Chirurgica: Its Causes and Prevention," and reference to this study is necessarily the starting point of any new consideration of this problem. Indeed, nothing of any special importance has been added to the subject since the publication of that paper. As Halsted1points out, his original operation for cancer of the breast, which "lies buried." as he puts it, in a paper under another title published in 1891, was practically the only procedure used in his