Surgical anesthesia produced by lumbar puncture and injection of various local anesthetics (so-called spinal or lumbar anesthesia) is now not only a well-accredited procedure, but one of daily performance in many of the hospitals in the United States. Bier,1O. Furster,2and Jonnesco,3in Europe, and Wayne Babcock,4in this country, as well as many other writers, have pointed out the advantages and contraindications for the procedure. All these authors have alluded to some form of ocular palsy as one of the rare complications of this method of surgical anesthesia. I have, therefore, thought it wise to place on record five instances of such complications and to assemble such other recorded instances as have appeared in the literature. There have been 2,000 lumbar anesthesias induced at the Samaritan Hospital in Philadelphia. Of this number, about 1,400 patients were anesthetized in the service of Dr. W. Wayne