Despite the relative infrequency of its occurrence, a developing knowledge of polyposis of the colon has stimulated increasing interest in this disease. As early as 1721, Menzel1reported a case in which there was a general inflammation of the intestinal tract with a number of wartlike excrescences in the colon. In 1861 Luschka1described a colon containing thousands of polyps from the ileocecal valve to the anus, varying in size from a hempseed to a bean. Cripps1in 1882 observed three cases occurring in the same family. The more recent literature on this subject bears such well known names as those of Murphy,2Lockhart-Mummery,3Erdmann,4Morris,4Gant,5Soper,6Doering7and Coffey.8 For purposes of standardization, Erdmann4suggested that the term "polyposis of the colon" be limited to designate an adenomatous hyperplasia of the intestinal mucous membrane as opposed to those polypoid tumors of the intestine which are histologically fibromas, myomas, lipomas and angiomas. The disease appears to be a uniform, nonspecific reaction of a preter