PUBLISHED BY THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION 

 OF THE COLLEGE OF PHARMACY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK 



11 



^ LIBRAR 

 NEW YOK 



botanio 



QARUEN 



Vol. 111. 



New York, May, 1896. 



No. 5. 



ASEPTIC CATGUT. 



By Charles Rice, Ph. D. 



There is much diversity of opinion 

 among surgeons regarding the most ef- 

 ficient way of rendering catgut ligatures 

 absolutely sterile. Some still prefer the 

 old-fashioned carbolized gut, prepared by 

 macerating or digesting the raw gut with 

 a 5 to 10 per cent, solution of carbolic 

 acid, or chromicized gut, made by ma- 

 cerating the raw gut during forty-eight 

 hours in a solution of 50 Gm. of carbolic 

 acid and 0.25 Gm. of chromic acid in i 

 litre of water, then removing and drying 

 the gut, and transfering it to carbolized 

 oil (i in 5.) Others, and probably the 

 majority of surgeons prefer catgut which 

 has been sterilized by certain liquids with 

 the aid of heat. The liquid most gener- 

 ally used for this purpose is alcohol. In 

 using alcohol for sterilizing catgut, it 

 has been found that the more water the 

 alcohol contains, the lower must be the 

 temperature of digestion; otherwise the 

 gut will soften or become rotten. If ab- 

 solute alcohol be used, the gut may be 

 enclosed with it in hermetically sealed 

 vessels, preferably glass tubes closed in 



the flame, and subjected to a heat, under 

 pressure, up to 230° F. and more, with- 

 out the least injury to its strength. If it 

 were subjected to such treatment while 

 in contact with hydrous alcohol, it would 

 become weak and altogether worthless. 

 Yet, the ordinary 94% alcohol may be 

 used if the temperature is not carried be- 

 yond the boiling point of the liquid at 

 the ordinary atmospheric pressure, that 

 is, if the alcohol is boiled in an open 

 vessel. And in this case it has been 

 found that the boiling should not be con- 

 tinued materially beyond one hour. At 

 one time, sublimated gut was recommen- 

 ed and in use. This was prepared by 

 adding a certain proportion, usually i in 

 1000, of corrosive sublimate to the liquid 

 (alcohol) in which the gut was boiled, 

 but it was soon found that this rendered 

 the gut more or less rotten, and therefore 

 highly dangerous, as it was apt to break 

 at any time, thus causing serious or fatal 

 hemorrhage. It is not the writer's pur- 

 pose to give an account ot the various 

 other methods heretofore proposed for 

 preparing sterilized catgut. His present 

 object is to describe those which have 



