ly connected with the wound of the duct.

Possibly the boldest operation in the history of surgery is that for
ligation of the abdominal aorta for inguinal aneurysm. It was first
practiced by Sir Astley Cooper in 1817, and has since been performed
several times with a uniformly fatal result, although Monteiro's
patient survived until the tenth day, and there is a record in which
ligature of the abdominal aorta did not cause death until the eleventh
day. Loreta of Bologna is accredited with operating on December 18,
1885, for the relief of a sailor who was suffering from an abdominal
aneurysm caused by a blow. An incision was made from the ensiform
cartilage to the umbilicus, the aneurysm exposed, and its cavity filled
up with two meters of silver-plated wire. Twenty days after no evidence
of pulsation remained in the sac, and three months later the sailor was
well and able to resume his duties.

Ligation of the common iliac artery, which, in a case of gunshot
injury, was first practiced by Gibson of Philadelphia in 1812, is,
happily, not always fatal. Of 82 cases collected by Ashhurst, 23
terminated successfully.

Foreign bodies loose in the abdominal cavity are sometimes voided at
stool, or may suppurate externally. Fabricius Hildanus gives us a
history of a person wounded with a sword-thrust into the abdomen, the
point breaking off. The sword remained one year in the belly and was
voided at stool. Erichsen mentions an instance in which a cedar
lead-pencil stayed for eight months in the abdominal cavity. Desgranges
gives a case of a fish-spine in the abdominal cavity, and ten years
afterward it ulcerated through an abscess in the abdominal wall.
Keetley speaks of a man who was shot when a boy; at the time of the
accident the boy had a small spelling-book in his pocket. It was not
until adult life that from an abscess of the groin was expelled what
remained of the spelling-book that had been driven into the abdomen
during boyhood. Kyle speaks of the removal of a corn-straw 33 inches in
length by an incision ten inches long, at a point about equidistant
from the umbilicus to the anterior spinous process of the right ilium.

There are several instances on record of tolerance of foreign bodies in
the skin and muscles of the back for an extended period. Gay speaks of
a curious case in which the point of a sheath-knife remained in the
back of an individual for nine years. Bush reported to Sir Astley
Cooper the history of