96 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1922. 



ganic extracts, digestive ferments, and pharmaceutical preparations 

 obtained from slaughtered animals, already shown in the division, 

 there were presented during the year by the Wilson Laboratories, 

 Chicago, 111., 33 specimens and 11 photographs which show the man- 

 ufacture of catgut ligatures and sutures. This exhibit demonstrates 

 that the basic material of these surgical necessities is the small in- 

 testine of the sheep and not the intestine of another animal, as the 

 name might imply ; also that the first 20 feet of the smooth part of 

 the intestine — which is the only part used in surgery — is cleaned, 

 washed, stretched, sterilized, and then cut into strands. Two or 

 more of the strands are twisted together by an ordinary spinning 

 wheel, gauged into sizes based on the American wire-gauge standard, 

 and placed in sealed tubes ready for use. In addition to a complete 

 series of plain, chromic, pyoktannin, iodized, and silverized catgut, 

 the exhibit contains an assortment of other ligatures and sutures of 

 animal origin, such as horsehair, kangaroo tendon, silkworm gut, 

 and twisted silk. For the purpose of showing the connection be- 

 tween these ligatures and sutures and surgery, a series of surgical 

 needles, needle holders, and wound clips were included in the ex- 

 hibit. The Kny-Scheerer Corporation of America, New York, N. Y., 

 donated 112 needles of different shapes and sizes and 9 needle holders. 

 The Museum is indebted to Fred Haslam & Co. (Inc.), of Brooklyn, 

 N. Y., for the contribution of a surgeon's suture outfit, complete, with 

 magazine wound-clip forceps, wound clips, etc. 



It has not been so many years ago since all pills and tablets used 

 in medicine were made by hand. Necessity, the mother of inven- 

 tion, created the demand for machines to do this work, and an ex- 

 hibit was installed during the year to give an idea of the workings 

 of a modern pill and tablet manufacturing plant. For this Eli 

 Lilly & Co., of Indianapolis, Ind., contributed 29 specimens and 

 14 photographs. With the compound cathartic pill and the phenas- 

 bic tablet as types, each progressive step — weighing, mixing, knead- 

 ing, shaping, and coating — have been illustrated so that each process 

 can be easily understood. 



The making of clinical thermometers is shown by a series of 30 

 specimens donated by the Nurnberg Thermometer Co. (Inc.), of 

 New York City. This exhibit illustrates the various processes in 

 the manufacture of thermometers of this kind from the time the 

 glass tubing is received from the glassworks until the scale is 

 engraved in wax, etched, and blackened so it can be easily read. 

 One of the most interesting steps is that in which the bulb and 

 tube of thin glass which contains the mercury and the thicker tube 

 upon which the scale is etched are Joined together. 



