GALLSTONES IN CHILDREN: REPORT OF A CASE DIAGNOSED BY ROENTGEN EXAMINATION AND CONFIRMED AT OPERATION

Only a few years ago the occurrence of gallbladder disease in childhood was looked on as a pathologic curiosity. Not until Potter1in 1928 collected 224 cases from the literature, which he reviewed when reporting four cases from his own practice, did the medical profession begin to realize that many of the vague "stomach aches" of children were really manifestations of biliary disease. It is highly probable that this series of collected cases represented the merest fraction of the actual number of children afflicted with some disturbance of the biliary tract, for so firmly fixed was the idea that only adults are subject to gallbladder disease that the possibility was seldom or never considered. Many of the reported cases were accidental discoveries, found when operating for something else (usually acute appendicitis). Worse still, many were found at autopsy. Ten years later, Potter2again took up the subject of