Metallic clips can be inserted much more quickly than any suture. They are also more rapid than stitches for closing deep layers and bleeding vessels but would, of course, leave the wounds full of small foreign bodies unless some absorbable metal could be used. I have been trying various metals and alloys with a view to finding those most absorbable, hoping to combine the good qualities of the animal ligature with the strength and speed of the metal clip, clamps and staples. A large part of the time required for any operation is that used in tying ligatures and in deep suturing. In some operations this amounts to 80 or 90 per cent, of the whole time spent. If we make a study of efficency in wound closure we see at once that there is a great deal of lost motion in first seizing and subsequently tying large numbers of