The entrance to the opening of the vaginal process is found covered by a valve arrangement, and the same is particularly noticeable in the canal of Nuck. The opening of the vaginal process can be caused to gape through a spreading out of the mesentery attached to the ilium or that of the sigmoid flexure. The diameter of the opening is, in general, greater on the right side than on the left in boys, while in girls this difference is not observed. Further, the different forms of the incompletely obliterated opening of the vaginal process agrees with the most frequently occurring forms of the hernial sac in inguinal hernia. The relations of the vaginal process to the elementary parts of the spermatic cord are not constant. On the contrary, the relations which the smooth muscular structures of the cord bear to the vaginal process, in so far as their arrangement into bundles, and their positive relation to the posterior and lateral walls of the same are concerned, are quite constant, and almost form an integral part of the same. The obliteration of the vaginal process depends upon a granulating process, which begins in the middle third of the funnicular portion, and from thence proceeds more rapidly in a downward than in an upward direction. This granulation formation takes place essentially during the first ten to twenty days after birth; after this time it takes place more slowly. The canal of Nuck, on the contrary, is found to have almost entirely disappeared at the time of birth. They are both found to be more frequently open upon the right side. From these observations it would appear that it is not essential to the production of inguinal hernia that a broad and short inguinal canal should be present. The only essential predisposing cause, in children at least, depends upon the condition of the vaginal process of the peritoneum itself. The question of the legal responsibility of employers is an interesting one, in connection with this question. Hernia cannot be considered as an accident, in the surgical sense, according to Socin (Korrespondenzblatt f. Schweizer Aertze, 1887, No. 18), but is really a slowly occurring disease, to which certain well-defined anatomical peculiarities act as predisposing causes. ACID SUBLIMATE SOLUTION IN SURGERY.