N 1923, the idea of treating intra-abdominaI suppurative areas by swabbing with 70 per cent ethv1 aIcoho1 was first practicahy applied by “Behan during an operation for acute suppurative peritonitis. In this case the appendix had ruptured and free pus was present in the peritonea1 cavity. On cuIture and microscopic examination, the pus showed Gram-negative bacilh and Gram-positive diplococci. About 20 C.C. of 70 per cent ethyl aIcoho1 was swabbed into the area from which the appendix had been removed. The patient was discharged from the hospital in fifteen days, about seven days earlier the average period of hospitaIization at that time in this type of case. SeveraI other cases of a simiIar nature were successfuIIy treated in the same manner. Encouraged by the good results which were obtained in the treatment of IocaIized peritonitis by the application of aIcoho1 to the invoIved area, Behan began to use 70 per cent aIcoho1 as an intra-abdomina1 Iavage in suppurative peritonitis. This was first done in 1926 in a case of acute gangrenous appendicitis resuIting in acute suppurative peritonitis. A cuIture from the free pus in the peritonea1 cavity showed B. coli. Due to inherent conservatism and the inertia of habit, although its beneficiar and Iife-saving effects were apparent, intraabdomina1 Iavage with 70 per cent aIcoho1 was not at once adopted as a means of treatment in a11 cases of suppurative peritonitis. However, the resuIts of treatment in the cases in which it was used were so convincing that it was finaIIy adopted as a routine procedure. Since its adoption we have had an astonishingIy Iow mortaIity in our suppurative peritonitis cases. One statistica study is based primariIy upon cases of acute exudative appendicitis and suppurative peritonitis, treated in St. Joseph’s HospitaI over a period of three years. These figures are compared with a series of cases treated in the same hospital from 1920 to 1933. In this period there were forty-four cases of acute generaIized suppurative peritonitis in which aIcoho1 was not used as an intra-abdomina1 Iavage. Of these, twenty-two died, a mortaIity of 30 per cent. In the same period, forty-two patients with acute generalized suppurative peritonitis were treated in an identical manner with, in addition, intra-abdominal lavage with 70 per cent ethyl aIcoho1. ii:e added to these forty-two cases four simiIar cases in other hospitaIs. In ah, in the fortysix cases, two died, a mortality of 4.3 per cent. Since 1930, because of convincing beIief in its effectiveness, we have routineIy used intraperitoneal Iavage with 70 per cent ethy1 alcohol in a11 cases of peritonitis at operation. When the abdomen has been opened, if free fibrinous fluid or pus is found in the peritones1 cavity, a culture is taken. This is immediately foIIowed by the introduction of IOO to 200 C.C. or more of 70 per cent ethyl alcohol into the abdominar cavity. The amount may be increased to a degree sufhcient to fiI1 the wahed off and IocaIized abscess cavity; or, if a generalized peritonitis is present, to flood the free peritoneal cavity. In every instance, of generalized suppurative peritonitis the abdominal waI1 on either side of the incision is eIev.atecI by retractors and sufficient aIcoho1 is introduced to Ii11 the peritoneal cavity com-