This survey covers 2,282 published temporal lobe resections, performed from 1928-1973, all over the world, as treatment of invalidating, drug-resistant epilepsy. At follow-up, two-thirds of the patients were free or almost free from seizures; and over half of those patients who were mentally abnormal before the operation were normalized or had obtained a marked improvement. The operative mortality has always been very low. No operative mortality has been recorded within the last decade. The risk of severe complications such as persistent hemiparesis and/or a complete homonymous hemianopia has decreased markedly, and is now only a few per cent.