IN THYROID SURGERY, it has been observed, a great amount of time is often lost by lack of cooperation between the members of the operating team; more particularly, by lack of a definite plan of preparing the held for the surgery. It has also been found that the use of a screen between the surgeon and the anesthetist, besides the time consumed in placing, interferes with certain movements and activities of the surgeon, and closes off the view of the field from the anesthetist, by an occasional glance at which the latter obtains definite useful information. Especially is this true during nitrous oxid-oxygen anesthesia.