It is difficult for me to find fault with Dr. Lilly's presentation, especially since he refers to me as a fair-minded, clear-thinking man! Dr. Thaler and I concluded in 1968 that the chance of encountering a patient with operable atresia of the extrahepatic biliary ducts was so small that our primary obligation was to protect the infant with neonatal hepatitis from unnecessary and potentially harmful anesthesia and exploration. Much of our data came from an era when surgeons conducting explorations to differentiate neonatal hepatitis from biliary atresia took an inordinate time to look for ducts, perform an operative cholangiogram, and take a liver biopsy.