It is widely accepted that carcinoma of the large bowel is common in the Western world because we eat a low-residue diet which causes fecal stasis. The part of the large bowel with the most stasis is the appendix, which has similar mucosa; but the incidence of carcinoma per unit area of appendicular mucosa is four times less than carcinoma per unit area of large bowel. Therefore, fecal stasis is probably not important in the etiology of carcinoma of the appendix.