Surgical Procedure in Liver Abscess

Sir,?Under the above heading Dr. Huntly raises certain questions in connection with operative treatment of abscess of the liver. It does not appear, however, that his letter exhausts the debatable points, and it seems desirable to enquire whether the method usually employed to diagnose and localise a hepatic abscess, namely the thrusting of a trochar into the liver through the abdominal or thoracic wall in various directions, is not a relic of barbaric surgery, which should be discarded as completely as has been the " subcu taneous" operation for the radical cure of hernia. The procedure dates from the time when to open the abdomen and examine the contained organs by sight and touch was attended by so much danger that to do so was, except in