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CommentThe reported case is unusual, first, because a desmoid tumor was found in the abdominal wall inside of the costal arch. Gatchell, Clagett, and McDonald8 recently reported a case in which a desmoid tumor arose from the intercostal muscles of the right upper thorax. The second unusual feature is that the desmoid tumor involved the adherent colon. Considering the patient's history of prolonged abdominal distress following an automobile accident 10 years prior to the present admission, it seems plausible that she had had some injury to the abdominal wall and the bowel tract at that time which led to adhesions between the colon and the abdominal wall, and that subsequently the desmoid which originated in the traumatized area of the abdominal wall extended into the densely adherent portion of the transverse colon. Summary A patient had a desmoid tumor of the abdominal wall inside the costal arch, which involved the distal portion of the transverse colon close to the splenic flexure. The lesion was found accidentally when the patient was operated on for a duodenal ulcer. Subtotal gastrectomy and segmental colon resection, with excision of the abdominal wall inside the costal arch, performed in one stage, led to complete cure of the patient.

SUMMARY.— The skin‐window technique was applied to normal und involved skin sites of 17 patients with mycosis fungoides, 8 patients with parapsoriasis en plaque, and 6 patients with cutaneous lymphomata, and also to normal skin of 25 controls. Large mononuclear cells rapidly migrated in large numbers from plaques of mycosis fungoides and parapsoriasis. Identical cells were seen in skin windows from control sites at later intervals. No malignant cells were found in any of the skin windows of mycosis fungoides or purapsoriasis. Malignant cells were found in cases of malignant cutaneous lymphoma. Comparison of cells found on the skin windows from mycosis fungoides plaques to lymph node imprints indicates that the former are immature reticular cells without neoplastic features. We conclude that mycosis fungoides is a proliferation of these benign immature reticular cells in the skin.

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