The purpose of this paper is to emphasise the importance of routine exploration of the abdominal viscera in all patients undergoing elective abdominal surgical procedures. We report here a case in which an unsuspected and asymptomatic argentaffin carcinoma of the small bowel was discovered in the course of hysterectomy carried out for intractable metrorrhagia. The operative procedure consisted of total hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy. This was followed by resection of part of the terminal ileum 10 cm. on each side of the tumour together with a wedge of mesentery which included the infiltrated area.peer-reviewe
