Surgery of the lacrimal sac dates back to the time of Galen, 50 A.D., and of Celsus,1 100 A.D., but credit for the first intranasal dacryocystotomy is generally given to Caldwell,2 of New York, who published his work in 1893. Ritter3 cited the work of Hopmann, who as early as 1885 brought forth the idea of operating on the lacrimal sac intranasally, using a sound passed from above as a guide. Killian4 in 1889 reported his intranasal operation. He passed a Bowman probe from above, carrying it down into the lacrimal canal as far as possible. He then cut off the anterior end of the inferior turbinate and removed all the intranasal wall of the nasolacrimal duct. Passow5 reported on 4 patients operated on by this method two years later. In 1904 Strazza reported his intranasal operation and in 1908 Okuneff reported on a similar operation. All these early workers