The unique opportunity to study a large number of casualties with peripheral nerve injuries was first recognized during the American Civil War. At that time, Weir Mitchell emphasized the necessity of keeping complete records on each case for further analysis, since wartime provided little time for deep thought. In subsequent wars, adequate records have been maintained, but interest in the fate of the victim of nerve injury and the problems surrounding peripheral nerve repair usually waned with the ending of the conflict. Sydney Sunderland, an exception to this rule, lost interest neither in his nerve-injured patients of World War II nor in the study of peripheral nerves. Already recognized for his detailed and authoritative publications dealing with peripheral nerves, Sunderland has consolidated into a single volume his vast wartime clinical experience as an Australian Army physician and surgeon and his peacetime laboratory work as an anatomist at the University of