1. Although fractures and dislocations of the talus have been described since 1608 the rarity of the more severe and complicated injuries has meant a dearth of accurate descriptions or classification in the literature.

2. A series of 228 injuries of the talus occurring in members of the Royal Air Force between 1940 and 1943 has been reviewed.

3. A simple but comprehensive classification of injuries of the talus is presented, together with a review of the pathological anatomy, clinical features, and methods of treatment. The importance of distinguishing between fractures and fracture-dislocations, and of watching carefully for displacements of the subtalar joint, is emphasised.

4. The important complications—infection, avascular necrosis and traumatic arthritis of the ankle or subtalar joint—are discussed. Infection may be the result of a compound injury, or may follow sloughing of the skin stretched over a displaced talus. Early reduction is, therefore, of great urgency in closed injuries. Avascular necrosis of the talus occurs in gross injuries when all or most of the soft-tissue attachments to the bone are severed. Revascularisation and regeneration will take place with patient conservative treatment.

5. The mechanism of injury is discussed.

6. The results of excision of the talus are poor. Every effort should be made to preserve the body of the talus, but if its loss is inevitable a useful foot can be regained by deliberate fusion of the tibia to the calcaneum.

1. A report is made of 1000 consecutive cases of infection of the hand treated in the hand clinic of the Surgical Department of the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

2. Standard lesions are given a standard treatment. The methods of treatment are described and the results are expressed according to the time to healing from first attendance at the clinic. An attempt was made to review those cases in which a disability of any sort was anticipated, and an assessment made with regard to appearance and function.

3. Many patients came to hospital at a late stage when skin necrosis had already occurred, and particular attention is paid to the management of this complication.

4. It is concluded that the principles of conservative surgery applied to the treatment of infected hands give good results.

1. A series of 1,211 cases of infection of the hand and fingers is reviewed. Of the 1,066 which required operation about two-thirds were treated by excision and suture, and the results in these cases are analysed.

2. The criterion of success was per primam healing in seventeen days or less, and 54 per cent of the cases treated by this method (excluding paronychiae) fulfilled this criterion.

3. The causes of failure are discussed.

4. It is concluded that excision and suture is the method of choice in well localised infections, but that it should be avoided in diffuse infections and in some cases with sinuses. Its use is unnecessary in trivial infections.

1. Primary reticulum-cell sarcoma of bone arises from the reticulo-histiocytic elements of bone marrow.

2. The authors have studied ten cases of primary reticulum-cell sarcoma of bone, and have compared the clinical, pathological and radiographic features with those of thirty-five cases of Ewing's sarcoma.

3. In their microscopic studies Hortega's staining techniques were used in addition to orthodox methods.

4. There are histological differences between a reticulum-cell sarcoma and Ewing's sarcoma.

5. Certain clinical and radiographic features help the differentiation between the two tumours.

6. The progress and treatment of the reticulum-cell sarcoma are reviewed in detail.

1 . A technique for measuring venous pressure during exercise is described.

2. The findings in normal and abnormal conditions of the lower limb are recorded.

3. The mechanisms involved in the return of blood from the lower limb in various conditions are discussed, with particular reference to the post-phlebitic state.

4. The need for an objective method of assessing the results of surgical treatment of venous abnormalities in the lower limb is stressed.

1 . Two hundred and twelve cases of acute haematogenous osteitis treated between 1936 and 1950 have been reviewed.

2. The cases are described in three groups: Group I—Seventy-five cases treated before the introduction of effective chemotherapy; Group II—Fifty-five cases treated with sulphathiazole and Group III—Eighty-two cases treated with penicillin.

3. The problems of penicillin therapy are discussed.

1. Six cases of posterior dislocation of the shoulder are described.

2. In four cases the diagnosis was made on clinical grounds.

3. The important clinical signs are the adducted and medially rotated position of the arm, a hard mass posteriorly below the acromion representing the displaced humeral head, and limitation of movement, especially abduction and lateral rotation.

4. In two cases the dislocation was not recognised at the first examination. This confirms the statement of previous authors that posterior dislocation is easily missed.

5. The value of the vertical projection in the radiography of suspected posterior dislocation is emphasised.

6. Reduction was accomplished without difficulty in five cases and the subsequent progress of these was uneventful. In the remaining case reduction was difficult and unstable, and the final recovery incomplete. It is considered that this patient would have been better treated by early open reduction.

1 . The extraordinary background and circumstances of discovery of a man, aged fifty, the subject of the rare congenital anomaly of posterior dichotomy, taking the form of a hemipelvis and complete lower limb is reported.

2. The appendage is described and illustrated.

3. Investigations and treatment are described and the result illustrated.

4. Reference is made to previous recorded cases in the literature.

1 . The magnitude of the problem of congenital anomalies becomes evident when one takes into consideration the fact that they cause the death of approximately one quarter of the human race either before or shortly after birth, and handicap an appreciable proportion of the survivors throughout their lives. Further, a significant percentage of infants judged to be normal at birth are found in later life to suffer from "disguised" anomalies of the skeleton and soft tissues. Though the study of genetic factors leading to congenital defects has attracted a great deal of attention during the last few decades, the importance of environmental causes of human malformations has received relatively less emphasis. The association of congenital anomalies such as cataract and cardiac septal defects with maternal intercurrent infection of rubella during the early months of pregnancy demonstrates clearly that changes in the germplasm cannot always be invoked as the cause of developmental abnormalities. Congenital malformations that are sometimes genetically determined, such as microphthalmos, cleft palate, and certain skeletal abnormalities, can be caused in the offspring not only by maternal nutritional deficiencies and x-radiation but also, at least in some animals, such as chickens, rats and rabbits, by the introduction of certain substances like insulin into the environment of the embryo during its development.

2. Since very little is known of the detailed histology of the early human embryo, the histological examination of cases of perverted growth is mainly limited to aborted foetuses which, unfortunately, tend to present varying degrees of post-mortem degeneration before accurate histological methods can be applied. It is exactly in this field that animal experiments can offer valuable help. According to Mall and other embryologists the pathological changes that take place in human foetuses and those obtained experimentally in animals are not merely "analogous or similar but identical."

3. An attempt has been made to review, in some detail, the more important work which has been carried out on experimental teratogenesis, on the epidemiological implications of developmental arrests in humans, and on foetal abnormalities associated with maternal metabolic and hormonal disorders during pregnancy.

4. The technique employed for injection of insulin into the egg yolk has been described. Methods used for the estimation of blood sugar in chick embryos at various stages after injection of insulin and special histochemical techniques for localising polysaccharides in cartilage have been outlined.

5. A few salient experimental results have been tabulated, and some of the insulin-induced abnormalities have been illustrated.

6. The possible mechanism of action of insulin in the causation of the various developmental anomalies has been discussed. Broadly speaking, insulin seems to affect primarily the part or tissue which is in the most active stage of growth or differentiation at the time of the injection. Within the range of 0·05 to 6 units of insulin employed, the incidence, severity and distribution of the deformities appear to increase with the dose of the hormone. It has been observed that the hypoglycaemia caused by insulin injection is not counteracted till about the twelfth day of incubation, presumably because of excessive accumulation of glycogen in the yolk-sac membrane immediately after the injection, and because of lack of glycogen storage in the embryonic liver and the absence of active secretion in the endocrine glands concerned with the carbohydrate metabolism of the embryo. It has been suggested that this unchecked hypoglycaemia may deprive the mesenchyme, pre-cartilage and cartilage of glycogen and mucopolysaccharides (chondroiten-sulphuric acid complexes), depending on the time of injection and the dose of insulin, and thus not only give rise to a variety of single and multiple deformities in the cartilaginous skeleton but also interfere with the normal endochondral ossification, resulting in a generalised developmental disturbance of bone resembling osteogenesis imperfecta in the human.

7. Insulin-induced abnormalities can be prevented to a remarkable extent by injecting nicotinamide and riboflavin into eggs along with insulin.

8. The question of the practical application of the knowledge gained from experimental observations on insulin-induced developmental abnormalities in explaining the possible causation of congenital anomalies in humans by genetic and environmental teratogenic factors, has been discussed. It is suggested that the orderly progression from the mesenchymatous condensation to cartilage, and then through calcified cartilage to bone, may be disturbed by these teratogenic factors at critical phases during the development of the embryo, and a variety of single and multiple skeletal deformities may thus be induced.

9. A plea is made for routine pathological and radiological examination of aborted foetuses and stillborn infants more or less on the lines followed for experimentally induced deformities with a view to applying the knowledge gained from animal experiments to a better understanding of the etiology and pathology of human congenital anomalies.

10. As regards the possible prevention of these deformities, it is not always easy to offer sound eugenic advice in the cases of congenital malformations determined partly or completely by genetic factors, for two important reasons. First, it is often difficult to distinguish between genetically determined congenital anomalies and their phenocopies. Secondly, genetically determined developmental defects sometimes show surprisingly variable expressivity and penetrance. For the conditions in which both genetic and environmental factors are involved, the most profitable immediate line of attack would be on the environmental factors. A relatively simpler problem is presented by the malformations which are, for all practical purposes, entirely caused by environmental factors. Measures to prevent congenital anomalies caused by prenatal rubella, such as exposure of girls to the disease during childhood and protection of pregnant women during the early stages of pregnancy by immune serum, are under active consideration.

11 . Further energetic investigation of the causes of permaturity, stillbirths, monstrosities and congenital malformations is urgently needed, before embarking on a successful programme for prevention. "The day of successful prophylaxis is not yet, but it is much nearer than seemed possible a few years ago."