Gunshot wounds of the abdomen, like those of the chest, are, for the sake of convenience, divided into _non–penetrating_ and _penetrating_. The NON–PENETRATING may be either simple flesh wounds, or may be accompanied with fracture of some of the pelvic bones, or with injury to some of the contained viscera. In PENETRATING wounds, the peritoneum only, or, together with it, one or more of the abdominal viscera, may be wounded; or, in comparatively rare cases, a viscus may be penetrated without the peritoneum being involved. It is in the regional cavity of the abdomen that the proportion of penetrating wounds is the greatest. The cranium, from its form, structure, and coverings, serves as a strong defense even against gunshot; the osseous yet elastic and movable ribs, the sternum, and muscular parietes greatly protect the contents of the cavity which they inclose; but the extensively exposed surface of the abdomen, anteriorly and laterally, has no power of resistance to offer against a projectile directly impinging it; and when this important cavity is once penetrated by these means, death is the almost inevitable result. Even the chances of a favorable termination which may exist in wounds from other causes are generally wanting; and much of their treatment, such as the use of sutures, and other means to insure the apposition of cut edges, is inapplicable, from the parts to a certain distance being almost necessarily deprived of their vitality, to injuries from gunshot. =Non–penetrating= wounds require but few remarks in this place. The fatal injuries which occasionally occur from masses of shell or round shot, in which the liver, spleen, or other viscera are ruptured without penetration of parietes, and where death ensues from shock, hemorrhage, or peritonitis, have already been alluded to. If, although the viscera have been contused, the injury does not amount to being mortal, the patient should be subjected to perfect quiet, extreme abstinence, and, only when inflammation arises, to the necessary treatment for its control. If the parietes have been much contused, abscess or sloughing may be expected; and a tendency to visceral protrusion must be afterward guarded against.