The exponents of early postoperative ambulation are becoming progressively more numerous, if one is to judge by the number of cases reported by individual authors. Zava1 alone reported 6,000 cases. The literature surveyed in the course of this study presented no instance of reversion to the older modes of treatment once early ambulation had been tried.
Although propaganda for early ambulation has been under way, several writers have claimed to have "discovered" or "hit on" this manner of postoperative treatment independently. Zava noted that insane patients moved about frequently immediately after operation with no ill effects. Nelson2 observed that children did well in spite of the fact that they were restless and active and that animals walked immediately after surgical treatment with no disruption of the wound. Leithauser3 and Nelson2 independently observed that self ambulation not only caused no ill effects in children but resulted in