VARIOUS metals have been used in surgical procedures for many years. Silver was one of the first to be used extensively and at one time enjoyed considerable popularity. Its softness made it easy to handle but gave it the disadvantage of bending easily. Its chief fault, however, was its unfavorable tissue reaction, with resultant interference with wound healing. This fault also applied to aluminum and other metals; in fact, with few exceptions, metals are poorly tolerated in body tissues. Venable and Stuck1 concluded from experimental work done in 1936 that all the metals commonly used in surgery were subject to electrolytic activity in body fluids and that the extent of tissue damage was roughly equivalent to the amount of galvanic reaction which took place between the metals. Venable2 stressed the fact that a combination of two metals should never be used, even though each is itself inert. According