rifle–ball had divided the scalp and pericranium about four inches in length obliquely across the skull, just anterior to the angle of the lambdoidal suture, the posterior end of the sagittal suture being exposed midway in the line of the wound. The patient vomited at the instant of the blow, and symptoms of compression, mixed with some of concussion, soon followed. He died eleven hours after the injury. At a post–mortem examination, the superior longitudinal sinus was found to be ruptured, and about four ounces of coagulated blood were lying on the brain. Two darkly–congested spots were observed in the cerebrum, one on each hemisphere, corresponding with the line of direction in which the ball had passed, and these, when cut into, presented the usual characters of ecchymoses. There was no fracture of bone. The case may be found detailed at some length in the _Lancet_, vol. i., 1855. When inflammation follows the passage of a ball, whether terminating in resolution or leading to abscess, the symptoms and treatment required will be the same as in similar affections from other causes. In like manner, the occurrence of erysipelas, or other complications to which these wounds of the scalp are liable, will be found treated elsewhere. (See INJURIES OF THE HEAD.) The treatment of an ordinary gunshot wound of the scalp should be very simple. Cleansing the surface of the wound, removing the hair from its neighborhood for the easier application of dressings, lint moistened with clean water, very spare diet, and careful regulation of the excretions are the only requirements in most cases. The patient must be closely watched, so that measures may be taken to counteract inflammatory symptoms in their earliest stages. Even after one of these wounds has healed, and the patient to all appearance has quite recovered, it is necessary to enjoin continued abstinence from excesses of all kinds. Instances are frequently quoted where intoxication, a long time after the date of injury, has induced symptoms of apoplexy and death. In the Surgical History of the Crimean Campaign, the case of a soldier of the 31st Regiment, thirty–eight years old, who received a contused wound at the back of the head from a piece of shell, without section of the scalp and without lesion of the bone, is related. In this instance a small abscess formed under the scalp, and was evacuated. After the wound was healed the man suffered from constant headaches, and was invalided to England. Soon after landing he drank freely, coma followed, and he died shortly afterward. The post–mortem examination showed traces of inflammatory action in the dura mater, and “just anterior and superior to the corpora quadrigemina was a tumor the size of a walnut, composed of organized fibrin and some clotted blood.”