During the last twenty-five years, surgeons have attempted to add surgical treatment to other forms of therapy in many conditions characterized by anemia and splenomegaly. They have, therefore, applied splenectomy in advanced, and in some early, cases of splenic anemia, hepatic cirrhosis, hemolytic icterus, pernicious anemia, myelogenous leukemia, Gaucher's1 disease, and recently, to hemorrhagic purpura. Their efforts have been beneficial in splenic anemia, hemolytic icterus and hemorrhagic purpura, but rather unsatisfactory in pernicious anemia and in myelogenous leukemia. Occasionally splenectomy in hepatic cirrhosis is followed by improvement. Removal of the spleen as a therapeutic procedure has been based on the facts that it may be removed without definite damage to life; that this organ may be a factor in the destruction of blood in some cases of anemia; that any tumor which interferes with the vital functions of other organs should be removed, and that splenectomy empirically performed in hemorrhagic