To make a detailed examination the patient should be stretched out on one side upon a treating table, although the general examination may be sufficient. Then, standing in front of the patient and reaching over him, a most careful diagnosis can be made. Do not stand back of the patient as the flat of the fingers can not be used to advantage in outlining the different vertebræ. The various contracted muscles that may be found along the spinal column will be of valuable aid in locating derangements of the vertebræ and vertebral ends of the ribs. By using contracted muscles along the spinal column as a guide for locating lesions, reference to the large superficial muscles is not made, but to the small areas of contracted fibres of the deep muscles. It is the deep muscles that become more or less contracted, and even fibrotic, when lesions of the vertebræ and ribs exist. The superficial muscles are generally contracted by atmospheric changes, slumped postures, wrong habits, etc., and are not generally the result of disorders in the osseous system. The preceding points in regard to contracted muscles cannot be too carefully observed for there is a tendency among many osteopaths to treat the contracted deep muscles as primary lesions in nearly every case. Remember that if they are not due to the motor nerve fibres of the muscles being irritated by the spinal lesion, or to a reflex stimulus, or to a compensatory change, that although the muscular tension may be the inception of the almost certain interosseous lesion, still the leverages secured through bony adjusting are very essential not only in correcting the osseous malposition but in loosening and releasing fibrous muscles and thickened ligaments. =Thorax.=—Examination of the thorax as a region has been largely gone over in speaking of the ribs and their sternal attachment, cartilages, sternum and the clavicles, but its appearance as a whole should be carefully noted for it will be a valuable aid in diagnosis. Deviations from the normal, such as the emphysematous or barrel-shaped chest in asthmatic affections, or chronic cough, or accompanying kyphosis, the flat chest and its association with phthisis, the rachitic, etc., should be considered. Spinal deformities are reflected in the thorax by marked changes in contour, such as elevations and depressions corresponding to the spinal changes. These result in marked interference with the thoracic organs and in young subjects are of particular interest. Rib changes are frequently the result of vertebral deviations.