It frequently happens that men bleed to death before assistance can be procured, or lose so much blood as not to be able to go through an operation. In order to prevent this, it has been proposed, and on some occasions practised, to make each man carry about him a garter, or piece of rope-yarn, in order to bind up a limb in case of profuse bleeding. If it should be objected, that this, from its solemnity, may be apt to intimidate common men, officers at least should make use of some such precaution, especially as many of them, and those of the highest rank, are stationed on the quarter deck, which is one of the most exposed situations, and far removed from the cockpit, where the surgeon and his assistants are placed. This was the cause of the death of Captain Bayne, of the Alfred, who, having had his knee so shattered with a round shot, that it was necessary to amputate the limb, expired under the operation, in consequence of the weakness induced by loss of blood in carrying him so far. As the Admiral, on these occasions, allowed me the honour of being at his side, I carried in my pocket several tourniquets of a simple construction, in case accidents to any person on the quarter deck should have required their use. It sometimes happens, however, that no hæmorrhage arises from a limb being carried off by a ball. The surgeon of the Fame related to me an instance of this, in which the thigh was cut through by a shot near its upper part, all except a little flesh and skin, and yet not the least hæmorrhage followed. This may have been owing to the limb being entirely severed, or nearly so, whereby the vessels contracted more easily than if they had been partially divided. All that was done for this man was to remove the limb, and to saw off the jagged end of the bone. He survived six days, still without bleeding, and died of the locked jaw. I was informed by several of the surgeons, that the method of taking up the vessels by the _tenaculum_ was found to answer extremely well; and many of them imagined that the locked jaw was not so apt to be brought on by this mode of operation as by that of the needle. But it is hardly to be attempted in time of action, for want of steadiness and a good light, and it was chiefly at the hospitals that this practice was found so successful. Mr. Alanson’s method of amputation by a great retraction of the muscles, so that the fleshy parts shall meet over the bone and unite in the first intention, was attended with great success in the West Indies, particularly at the hospital at St. Lucia, under the care of Mr. Bulcock.