ng directions, while a third series involved both buttock and
thigh.

The size of the great sciatic nerve renders complete laceration by a
bullet of small calibre a matter almost of impossibility; hence complete
division may almost be left out of consideration in the case of this
nerve. On the other hand, partial division, perforation, and severe
contusion are each and all favoured by the same factor.

With an extended thigh the nerve is in a state of comparatively slight
tension, and this may be still lessened if the knee be flexed. This
factor, together with the density of the sheath of the nerve, favours
the possibility of displacement, and this occurrence is more likely in
the lower segment than in the upper, which is comparatively fixed in
position.

Clinical experience appeared to illustrate the importance of these
anatomical factors, as the worst cases of sciatic injury that I saw were
in connection with wounds of the buttock or the junction of that segment
of the trunk with the thigh.

The most striking observation with regard to the injuries of the great
sciatic nerve was the comparatively frequent escape of the popliteal
element and the severe lesion of the peroneal. This was so pronounced as
to amount to as high a proportion of peroneal symptoms as 90 per cent.,
and often when the whole nerve was implicated the popliteal signs were
of the irritative, the peroneal of the paralytic type. When bullets
crossed the popliteal space, given wounds of equal severity in
corresponding degrees of contiguity to the respective nerves, the
peroneal element always suffered in greater degree. Again, the peroneal
nerve symptoms were more obstinate and prolonged, and instances of
ascending neuritis were more common than in the case of any other nerve
of the lower extremity, and the trophic wasting of muscles was more
marked.

The peroneal nerve, therefore, acquires the same unenviable degree of
importance in the lower extremity enjoyed by the musculo-spiral in the
upper. Here, again, we are confronted with the fact that the peroneal
element of the great sciatic nerve is the more prone to idiopathic
inflammations or toxic influences, and hence we can only assume it to
possess a special vulnerability. The peroneal element is of course
somewhat the more exposed, as lying posterior; but it seems unreasonable
to assume that so large a proportion of the injuries can implicate the
posterior segment of the nerve as to make the st