237, is detailed a remarkable case of recovery, which was witnessed by the writer, after the wall of the abdomen, including the peritoneum, had been destroyed to the extent of five inches long by three broad; and a coil of intestine laid bare without protrusion, in the right iliac region. This patient had also a fracture of the ileum, another of the great trochanter on the same side, and his right forearm smashed. This case was treated in the general hospital before Sebastopol, by Mr. Hooke. Sometimes a wound caused by a large projectile, which was at first not penetrating, will indirectly become so, from the severe contusion and consequent sloughing to such an extent as to denude the viscera; and if, as is not unlikely, adhesion has taken place in the mean time between a portion of the viscera and peritoneal lining of the abdominal paries, the sloughing action may extend more deeply and the bowel itself become opened. Curious instances are recorded in which balls have passed directly through the abdomen without perforating any important viscus, as proved by examination after death. As an example, on the other hand, of the number of wounds which may thus be inflicted, a soldier of the 19th Regiment, on duty in the trenches before Sebastopol, who was shot through the abdomen in the act of defecation, was found by the writer, on post–mortem examination, to have had as many as sixteen openings made in the small intestine. He survived the wound nineteen hours. Gunshot wounds of the colon, especially of the sigmoid flexure, appear to be less fatal, probably from structural causes as well as circumstances of position, than wounds of the small intestine. In the Museum of Fort Pitt, however, is a preparation of jejunum exhibiting three constrictions, and supposed to have been perforated in three places, from a private of the 80th Regiment, who was shot through the abdomen at Ferozeshah, in 1845, and who died from cholera in 1851. Inspector–General Taylor, C.B., then surgeon of the regiment, who made the examination post mortem, thus described the injured part of the intestine: “The intestines neither there nor elsewhere were morbidly adherent; but the fold of intestines immediately opposed to the cicatrix presented a line of contraction as if a ligature had been tied round the gut. The same appearance existed in two other places.” It seems more likely that the gut was contused than perforated, and that contraction gradually supervened, especially as no adhesions were found; and, when wounded, the symptoms were so slight as to have led to the supposition that the ball had gone round the abdominal wall.