The results of wounds unfit soldiers for military service in many ways, according to the nature of the wound and the region in which it is inflicted; and the pensions consequent on their discharge entail heavy expenses of long duration on the country. It was hoped that the improvements in conservative surgery would have diminished the number of disabled soldiers as compared with former wars; but the corresponding improvements in the power and means of destruction, with other circumstances, have defeated this hope, and the returns do not show such to be the result. Even the cases where resections of the joints have been performed, and fractures united, which previously would have been treated by amputation, have rarely presented such cures as to render the men available for military service, though the preserved limb may still be of use in the work of civil life. Formerly, all men who thus became unfitted to perform any of the duties to which a soldier is liable were removed from the army; but, by an order from the Horse Guards of 1858, wounded soldiers, though rendered unfit for active service in the field, were directed to be retained for modified duty in such employments as they are capable of executing. The results of the increased practice of conservative surgery may, therefore, prove valuable to the public service, now that the opportunity of secondary employment is laid open. The reports from the hospitals in Italy show that during the recent campaign in that country the practice of conservative surgery after gunshot fractures has been very limited, and in the lower extremity has been almost wholly abandoned, early amputation being practiced instead. * * * * *