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Twenty-five healthy active male above-knee amputees were studied. They had been uniformly fitted with their prosthesis, which in all cases had a total-contact suction socket of laminated plastic, and their walking capacity with the prosthesis was good. Sixteen of the patients were studied with respect to tissue proportions in the stump and intact thigh, while all 25 underwent studies concerning socket fit and relative movement hetween femoral stump and socket.Mean total cross-sectional area of amputation stump 5-10 cm above end of femur was calculated to be 63% of that of intact thigh. Mean cross-sectional area of skin and subcutaneous tissue of the stnmp exceeded that of intact thigh by 12% (O.Ol>P>O.OOl). Muscle and bone tissues of stump were 55 % (P < 0.001) and 27 % (0.01 > P r 0.001) less, respectively, than those of intact thigh. In the stnmp, skin and subcutaneous tissue were calculated to occupy a mean of 41.8%, muscle 53.9% and bone 4.3 % of the total cross-sectional area. Corresponding tissue proportions in intact thigh were 21.3%, 75.0% and % .In only about 40% of the patients was contact hetween stump and socket actually total. In the remainder there was a free space of varying size at the distal end between stump skin and socket.The femoral stump showed appreciable movement in the Soft tissues within the socket. An arc of considerable dimension at the level of the knee and of the sole of the foot corresponded to observed changes in angnlation of the femoral stump within the socket. On full weight-bearing on the prosthesis alone the distal end of the femur assumed its most distal, lateral and posterior position, obviously as a result of active muscular function for achievement of lateral stabilization of the pelvis and prevention of flexion (collapse) of the prosthetic knee joint.

Books nowadays often contain descriptions of so many different surgical methods that a reader more or less unacquainted with the subject finds it quite impossible to determine which is the best plan to adopt in the particular case under observation. In this book the case is not so ; the lines laid down by Lorenz are acknowledged and strictly followed. Added to this we have

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