Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Mrs. Xenia Kenyon for her help in obtaining reference material. It is also a pleasure to record my appreciation of the excellent radiographs obtained with the support of Mr. James W. Larson, ASXRT, Administrative Technician of the Veterans Administration Medical Center, Tomah, Wisconsin.

Dr. Eugene K. McClellan, Chief of Pathology at that facility, was particularly helpful in interpreting the pathology literature to me and was a wonderful source of the kind of information pathologists don't write about because they assume everyone already knows it.

My family, including radiologists O. Arthur Stiennon, III, M.D., Michael J. Stiennon, M.D. and Kathleen Stiennon Gebarski, M.D. read portions of the manuscript. Michael and Arthur were able to check many of my fluoroscopic observations. David R. J. Stiennon, D.J. wrote some labor saving WP macros. Arthur got me involved with computers and helped with the mucosal fold problem. Thanks are also due aeronautical engineer Richard D. Stiennon for his efforts at finite element analysis of the sphincter opening problem and Patrick J.G. Stiennon, for checking my vector analysis. Many thanks to Prof. James Christiansen, a fellow student of the longitudinal muscle, for his encouragement.

To Jane Ginther my thanks for her introduction to the publishing world. It has been a pleasure to work with Melanie Yeazel, the talented graphics artist who designed the book and saw it through the press. Stephen Agar brought an artist's perception to image capture and reproduction. To David Yeazel, I am grateful for editorial review.

Although the conclusions recorded here evolved over many years, they were not reduced to writing until I served as a consultant with the Tomah, Wisconsin VAMC. Needless to say, the opinions expressed are entirely my own.