Cancer of the fundus with fibroid tumor may only be a coincidence, and we will not assume that predisposition to cancer is caused by the fibroid. The statistics that have been given, however, show that in at least 38 cases out of 205, or in about 18 per cent. of the cases, changes took place in the fibroid that seriously endangered the life of the woman. Sterility, abortion, and difficult or impossible labor are caused by uterine fibroids. Conception is impeded on account of the displaced, distorted uterus and the hemorrhage and discharge. Abortion is likely to occur, on account of the endometritis and the unequal expansibility and the irritability of the uterus. Labor is sometimes rendered impossible by the presence of a uterine fibroid that obstructs the pelvis, and Cesarean section has been performed for this cause. The cause of fibroid tumor of the uterus is unknown. Some authorities consider the condition, or at least the predisposition to the condition, to be congenital. Uterine fibroids have been observed in girls near the age of puberty, and hysterectomy for fibroid has been performed at the age of eighteen. Usually the disease begins to cause symptoms, and first comes under the observation of the physician, after the thirtieth year. It is very probable that small interstitial or subperitoneal fibroids exist in many women before this period, but, on account of the small size and the position of the growths, they produce no marked symptoms, and if the woman bears children, the tumors are very likely absorbed during the process of uterine involution. Fibroid tumors occur in both the white and the black races--with somewhat greater frequency in the latter than in the former. Tait says that fibroid tumors of the uterus are unknown among the black women of Africa. The disease is certainly very common among their descendants in this country. The frequency of uterine fibroids is difficult to determine, for there are many cases in which the disease is unrecognized on account of the small size of the tumor and the absence of symptoms. It is, however, one of the commonest diseases with which women suffer. In a series of 504 celiotomies performed for diseases of women at the University and Gynecean Hospitals, uterine fibroids were found in 85, or in about 17 per cent. of the cases. Fibroid tumors are found both in multiparous and in nulliparous women--much more frequently in the latter than in the former. Single women and sterile married women are especially predisposed to this disease. There are two probable causes for this difference. The unceasing congestions of menstruation favor the development of the neoplasm; and, when once started, its further growth is not checked by the retrograde changes that accompany involution of the uterus, and that sometimes cause the disappearance of even large fibroids.