One hundred consecutive intracapsular fractures of the neck of the femur treated at the Massachusetts Memorial Hospitals by nonsurgical methods have been reviewed. The purpose of the study was an endeavor to compare the end results of treatment by the abduction double plaster spica of Whitman1with the end results obtained by traction and internal rotation of Peckham2or Ruth.3Also it was planned to determine, if possible, the type of femoral neck fractures that consistently gave poor results under either kind of treatment. The study soon showed that accurate comparisons of the two methods would be impossible, because in general the more difficult cases were treated in plaster. However, the investigation showed several types of fractures in which each method gave many deaths or nonunions. Therefore the survey appears to be of some value indetermining roughly a group of cases in which surgery should be