Congenital atresia of the bile ducts is sufficiently rare to warrant presentation of an additional case. Isolated cases have been reported since 1801, but it was not until 1892 that a complete summary of the subject was given by Thomson,1 who added one case to forty-nine cases that he gathered from the literature. In 1901, Rolleston and Hayne2 collected ten more cases. Lavenson3 added one case in 1908, and by 1911, Howard and Wolbach4 found fourteen additional cases. Since then cases have been reported by Moschovitz,5 Alfred Hess,6 Holmes,7 Feldman,8 Hauser,9 Vigholt,10 Rosenberg and Judd11 and others.
For a clear understanding of this anomaly, it may be well to recall briefly the development of the biliary system.12 At about the third week of intra-uterine existence a longitudinal groove appears on the ventral wall of the duodenum. On the