Gunshot wounds of the spine are closely associated with similar injuries of the head. In both classes corresponding considerations must be entertained by the surgeon in reference to the important nerve–structures, with their membranes, which are likely to be involved in the injury to their osseous envelope; in both, the effects of concussion, compression, laceration of substance, or subsequent inflammatory action, chiefly attract attention. In the Surgical History of the Crimean Campaign, twenty–seven cases are noted in which vertebræ were fractured, eight being without apparent lesion of the spinal cord, and nineteen with evident lesion. Of these, twenty–five died; and two, in which the fractures were confined to the processes of the vertebræ, survived to be invalided. The gunshot wounds affecting the spinal column have not been separated from injuries in other regions in the French returns. Six men only wounded in the spine, during the late mutiny in India, arrived in Chatham. In all, they were the results of musket–balls. Two were wounds of the sacrum; in the remainder, the portions of the vertebræ fractured were the spinous processes. Concussion of the spinal column, leading to paralysis more or less persistent, is usually occasioned by fragments of shell, or stones from parapets; and in these cases the accidents are mostly accompanied by extensive lesions of the neighboring structures. In one fatal case in the Crimea, the ball passed through the spine rather below the first dorsal vertebra, leading to complete loss of sensation and voluntary motion below the seat of injury, and death on the sixteenth day afterward; in another, a rifle–bullet entered the right side of the second lumbar vertebra, traversed the spinal canal at that part, and lodged in the body of the bone. In this latter case, violent pain was complained of in the lower extremities, shooting along the groins. The patient was paraplegic, and death ensued thirty–three hours after admission. In another fatal case, a rifle–bullet passed through the right cheek, and lodged near the base of the skull. There was no paralysis, but delirium and coma supervened, and the patient died five days after receiving the wound. The bullet was found after death, lying just below the basilar process, and a large piece of the atlas was broken off and almost detached. The spinal cord did not appear to have been primarily injured, but acute inflammation had been set up, and had extended to the membranes of the brain. There is a preparation in the museum at Fort Pitt which shows fracture both of the atlas and axis, without lodgment of the ball. The patient survived thirty days. It is curious that, in a case under the care of the writer, before referred to, where a rifle–ball passed through the right loin, entered the spinal canal between the third and fourth lumbar vertebræ, breaking the laminæ, passed upward within the column, between it and the cord,