I might enumerate the cases of a great number of wounded men cured in this way, but the instances I have mentioned may suffice to make it known; I shall only add, that even while I am writing, there are a great many patients in the hospitals at Torgau, whose bones were so broken and shattered, that hitherto surgeons would not have conceived that it was possible to cure them without amputation, and who are all nevertheless in the way of recovery, by the method I have recommended. There are very few surgeons of the army, who have not seen instances in our hospitals of patients whose limbs were to have been cut off, where to their great dread, every thing was ready, and they placed in order to undergo the operation, when, either from their fainting or their resistance, it has been put off, and recourse has been had to the method I have just pointed out, by which, contrary to the general opinion, they have been cured, have saved their limb, and used it afterwards with convenience. If we compare this with what has been said, § XXVII. it will readily appear, that for the most part it is extremely wrong to amputate the limbs. SECT. XXXVIII. I have treated hitherto of accidents which quickly carry off the patients; I come now to consider those where the danger is not so pressing, and which terminate in death by slow degrees, a caries of the bone, and a cancerous state of the parts; for it is well known, that in these circumstances amputation is often deemed necessary. A caries of the bone is either superficial or deep seated, recent or inveterate, occasioned by a vicious state of the fluids, or the consequence of some external hurt. When it is recent and inconsiderable, whatever be the cause, there is no room to think of amputation at all, but the bone must be laid bare according to the extent of the caries, and scraped with a scalpel, or perforated in sundry places with the spike of a trepan; when the caries has gained the opposite part of the bone, we must then use the crown of the trepan, in order to take out the entire piece. I do not however propose entering into a detail of the manner of performing these operations.