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Sir Spencer Wells has said: "abdominal surgery, though not without just claims to the credit of having done good service to humanity, must still be looked upon as a branch of our science and art which, still important, calls for continued search for truth, and for constant efforts to improve methods of practice from every surgical stand-point."
To no branch of abdominal surgery does this statement apply with greater truth than to that pertaining to abdominal wounds. No branch of this subject is receiving larger attention to-day than is this, and in no other is there greater necessity; for in no department of the subject is there so much uncertainty. The subject is being discussed at the meetings of surgical societies and in journals all over the world, and yet, notwithstanding all that has been said, there is still much to be learned, for the subject is only in its