In September, 1878, August G----, aged 18 years, single, a native of Switzerland, was admitted to the Santa Clara County Hospital with incipient spinal disease. He was of that peculiar temperament which indicates a scrofulous cachexia. The fifth dorsal vertebra was sufficiently prominent to indicate the sight where the attack was being made by the enemy. There was considerable tenderness on pressure; slightly accelerated pulse, and elevated temperature;--in other words, a well defined case;--one which would have resulted in caries and deformity within a few months. By the administration of ten grain doses of hypophosphite of lime for several weeks, I had the pleasure of seeing recovery take place. Reasoning by analogy, I am led to conclude that the nature of the wound should, to a great extent, govern the kind of food given the patient during the treatment. In many cases of surgery, medicines are not necessary. But in some exceptional cases, as in similar ones to those above noticed, medicine is demanded. And in all cases of flesh wounds, I believe the patient will be benefited by a liberal diet of animal food; that is, after the first inflammatory condition has subsided. Why this is so, is simply because those very materials are furnished to the system which are required for the repair of the tissues injured, viz., the organic compounds. In flesh wounds of weak and debilitated persons which are slow in healing, a diet of beef tea, eggs, oysters, etc., will often bring about a rapid improvement. Thus, we see that chemistry, organic and inorganic, has something to do with surgery. I will now present the following cases which have seemed of special interest to me: