Buildings, Edinburgh) : With regard to Dr. Cuthbertson's paper, it seems t o me that there would be an opportunity for studying the dispersal of nitrogen from muscle, in nerve injuries which involve a nerve of the upper limb, particularly the musculo-spiral nerve whose division is followed by a rapid reduction in bulk of the extensor-supinator group of muscles, not contributed to by disuse from confinement to bed. I wonder also whether some information about the possible importance, use and

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... of various amino-acid groups could be obtained by the use of tagged ions. It seemed t o me that at the beginning of the war, with the dietary restrictions envisaged, there might be some difficulty in surgical practice with regard to the healing of wounds, and I have kept a record of the time spent in hospital after various major operations. The time spent in hospital has not been affected by war time diets. There is one point with regard to the disruption of wounds; a great many factors are apparent to the clinician which are possibly not apparent to other workers in studies of this sort. I n the first place, in the study of the disruption of a wound, the normal tensile strength of the tissue which is sutured should form an integral part of the preliminary consideration for the work, as well as the tensile strength of the suture material, which should not exceed the tensile strength of the tissue to be sutured. The type of suture employed should always be taken into consideration because it is important t o know the effect of knots on tensile strength; a mattress suture, for instance, has a different tensile strength from a figure-of-eight suture.