During the past seven years several reports1 concerning the use of cotton thread as a suture material have appeared in the literature. These reports were made by general surgeons and were based on the use of cotton sutures in more than 3,000 cases. In most instances the general surgeons were favorably impressed with the use of cotton for suturing certain types of wounds. No reports on the use of cotton as a suture material in clinical ophthalmology were made in a similar seven-year period. Berens and Romaine2 included cotton thread in their report on the comparative value of sutures employed in surgical procedures on the extraocular muscles, but their experimental work was carried out on rabbits. In the military service I used cotton as a suture material in approximately 50 operations on the eye. It seems to possess features that make it applicable to certain types of ophthalmic