Fracture of the Skull

present day regard the recommendations of Astley C!ooper, Abernethy and Dupuytren for 11011-interference in a case of simple depressed fracture of the skull without cerebral compression, it must surely be accepted as an axiom in modern surgery that wherever symptoms of such compression are present, it is absolutely imperative to make a free incision in order to allow of an examination of the state of th? skull and au elevation or a removal of the depressed portion of bone along with any extravasated blood within the cranial cavity. Experience bears this out, as it also shows that in the majority of cases the severity of the symptom of compression are out of all proportion to the slight depression of bone, and that the latter is by no means the 8ole or even the chief cause of the manifestations of cerebral compression, as an intracranial extravasation of blood is generally present. These, in addition to other points, were admirably exemplified in a case which recently came under my care, and a short account of which may therefore not be wanting in interest. On January 16th, 1907, Basanta, a Hindu male, aged twenty years, by occupation a labourer, was carried to hospital at Dhubri, in a completely unconscious state. The