AMPUTATION means the removal of a part of the body. In a more restricted sense the term is applied to the removal of a part or the whole of a limb in continuity. The conditions under which amputation becomes necessary are : ( r) injury, (z) gan grene, (3) infection, (4) malignant tumour, (5) deformity, (6) pain. Experience in the World War taught surgeons that ampu tation is necessary much less often than was formerly supposed. Advances in reconstructive surgery have made it possible to re habilitate badly damaged limbs without amputation, and modern methods of preventing and controlling infection have lessened the danger from this source. However, some injuries still demand amputation under certain conditions, notably avulsion of part of a limb, compound fractures, crushing and lacerating wounds and irreparable injury of the main artery of a limb. In the case of a definite gangrene it is usually a choice between a slowly advanc ing process, with the probability of an infection sooner or later, and amputation. In severe infections of a limb, especially if complicated by lesions of bone or joints, amputation may be a life-saving measure. Malignant tumours often necessitate ampu tation; deformities and pain occasionally do so.