_Non-operative treatment._—There is no doubt that in the milder cases and when the morbid process has come to a standstill, a considerable improvement may be effected by massage and persevering extension. I have seen in a patient of seventy the fourth and fifth fingers brought from an angle of 90° with the palm nearly to a straight line within a year, but the contraction relapsed completely in three months, when a severe illness made it necessary to suspend the treatment. We have heard much of the wonders effected by hypnotism during the latter days, but the surgeon hardly expected to be told that Dupuytren’s contraction, of all diseases, could be cured by “suggestion.” Yet in a recent volume of one of our medical journals we find a practitioner gravely claiming a successful result for this treatment in a case of the kind; a curious demonstration of the survival, at the end of the nineteenth century, of the peculiar mental condition that brought patients to the feet of Greatrakes and Perkins in a bygone generation. The _Operative measures_ may be divided into three classes: subcutaneous, open, and plastic. The _Subcutaneous method_ deserves the first place. Mr. Adams’s operation consists in the subcutaneous division of all the contracted bands of fascia which can be felt; “the bands to be divided by several punctures with the smallest fascia knife passed under the skin and cutting from above downwards, followed by immediate extension to the full extent required for the complete straightening of the fingers when this is possible, and the application of a retentive, well-padded, metal splint from the wrist along the palm of the hand and fingers; the fingers and hand to be bandaged to the splint. When the full extension cannot be safely made, it must be carried as far as possible without tearing the skin.” This plan I have followed, with slight variations, but I have found it easier, after making the preliminary puncture (which should be longitudinal in direction to prevent gaping during the subsequent extension), to pass the knife beneath the band and to cut from within outwards, except in places where the deep surface of the skin is very tightly adherent, and the little wounds are sealed with cotton wool impregnated with collodion and dusted over with iodoform. The sensation conveyed to the operator by the division of the round palmar cords is very similar to that experienced in tenotomy, and the effect of each section is immediate and encouraging. In some examples, however, the morbid tissue has become so firmly blended with the corium, especially over the proximal phalanx, that a satisfactory division is difficult, or even impossible; and if the extension be carried too far ominous fissures begin to appear in the rigid integument. When this happens the surgeon, if wise, will be satisfied with whatever he has been able to achieve, without proceeding further at the time. The splint extension may be immediate or deferred.