But in discountenancing great bleeding, mention should not at the same time be omitted that, in many cases, recorded by numerous authors, and judging _post factum_, the successful issues appear to have been owing to copious venesection. A remarkable case occurred in a young soldier of the 33d Regiment, private Thomas Monaghan, under the care of Deputy Inspector–General Dr. Muir, then surgeon of the regiment. This man was wounded in August, 1855, through the left shoulder–joint and chest, the glenoid cavity and head of the humerus being injured and the lung implicated. In this instance complete recovery as to the chest, and recovery with partial anchylosis of the shoulder, without operative interference, followed, and appeared attributable chiefly to inflammatory action being subdued by repeated depletion, the use of antimonial medicines, and enforced abstinence. In two other cases, hitherto unrecorded, which occurred during the same month in the same regiment, successful terminations appeared to be attributable to similar means. In one of these the ball entered the front of the chest, between the third and fourth ribs, and passed out between the seventh and eighth ribs below; in the other, after passing through the right arm, it entered the chest at the posterior border of the axilla, and emerged near the apex of the scapula. To remove splinters of bone, and readjust indented portions of the ribs, the finger should be introduced into the wound, and care taken that in doing so no pieces of cloth or fragments be separated and projected into the pleural sac. Notice must at the same time be taken of any bleeding vessel requiring to be secured. A pledget of lint should be laid over the wound, and a broad bandage placed round the chest, just tight enough to support the ribs and in some degree to restrain their movements, but with an opening over each wound large enough to permit the ready access of the surgeon to it if necessary. If the patient’s comfort admits of it, he should be laid with the wound downward, with a view to prevent accumulation of fluid in the pleura; and if there be two openings, as will be most frequently the case in rifle–ball wounds, one wound should be thus placed, and the upper one kept covered. In gunshot wounds, closure of the parietes by adhesion is of course not to be looked for. The diet, beverages, and medicines must constantly have reference to the avoidance of inflammatory action; and should this occur it must be combated on general principles. It is by such means we shall best assist the natural efforts toward recovery.