When jejunal ulcers1 began to appear as complications of gastroenterostomy, nonabsorbable sutures sometimes were discovered in their bases. This quickly led to the assumption of a cause and effect relationship between the foreign material and the unwelcome sequel. Many papers were written on the subject, but the clinical evidence resolved itself almost exclusively to the association of the ulcer with a thread still retained. Sometimes the suture has been partially cast off but was still adherent in the region of the ulcer, or at other times a strand of thread or a knot was exposed in the base of the ulcer. But on the other hand, the retained suture frequently had no connection with the ulcer; in over one half of the cases the ulcer was away from the suture line.2 The discovery of such a foreign body in the base of a jejunal ulcer was so dramatic