750 CATGUT 



and mucous membranes. The bundle of intestines is then laid upon a sloping table 

 which overhangs the tub, and their surface is scraped with the back of a kuifo, to try 

 if the external membrane will come away freely in breadths of about half their cir- 

 cumference. This substance is called by the French manufacturers filandre, and the 

 process filer. If we attempt to remove it by beginning at the large end of the in- 

 testine, we shall not succeed. This filandre is employed as thread to sew intestines, 

 and to make the cords of rackets and battledores. The flayed guts are put again into 

 fresh water, and after steeping a night, are taken out and scraped clean next day, on 

 the wooden bench with the rounded back of a knife. This is called curing the gut. 

 The large ends are now cut off, and sold to the pork-butchers. The intestines are 

 again steeped for a night in fresh water, and the following day in an alkaline lixivium 

 made by adding 4 ounces of potash, and as much pearlash, to a pail of water contain- 

 ing about 3 or 4 imperial gallons. This ley is poured in successive quantities upon 

 the intestines, and poured off again, after 2 or 3 hours, till they are purified. They 

 are now drawn several times through an open brass thimble, and pressed against it 

 with the nail, in order to smooth and equalise their surface. They are lastly sorted, 

 according to their sizes, to suit different purposes. 



Whipcord is made from the above intestines, which are sewed together endwise by 

 the filandre, each junction being cut aslant, so as to make it strong and smooth. The 

 cord is put into the frame, and each end is twisted separately ; for whipcord is seldom 

 made out of two guts twisted together. When twisted, it is to be sulphured once or 

 twice. It may also be dyed black with common ink, pink with red ink, which sul- 

 phurous acid changes to pink, and green with a green dye which the colour-dealers 

 sell for the purpose. The guts take the dyes readily. After being well smoothed, the 

 cord is to be dried, and coiled up for sale. 



Hatters' Cord for Bowstrings. The longest and largest intestines of sheep, after 

 being properly treated with the potash, are to be twisted 4, 6, 8, 10, or 12 together, 

 according to the intended size of the seams, which is usually made from 15 to 25 feet 

 long. This cord must be free from cords and knots. When half dry, it must be ex- 

 posed twice to the fumes of burning sulphur ; and, after each operation, it is to be 

 well stretched and smoothed : it should be finally dried in a state of tension. 



Clockmakers' Cord. This cord should be extremely thin, and be therefore made 

 from very small intestines, or from intestines slit up in their length by a knife fitted 

 for the purpose, being a kind of lancet surmounted with a ball of lead or wood. The 

 wet gut is strained over the ball which guides the knife, and the two sections fall down 

 into a vessel placed beneath. Each hand pulls a section. Clockmakers also make use 

 of stronger cords made of two or more guts twisted together. 



Fiddle and Harp Strings. These require the greatest care and dexterity on the part 

 of the workmen. The treble strings are peculiarly difficult to make, and are made at 

 Naples, probably because the Neapolitan sheep, from their small size and leanness, 

 afford the best raw material. 



The first scraping of the guts intended for fiddle-strings must be very carefully per- 

 formed ; and the alkaline leys being clarified with a little alum, are added, in a pro- 

 gressively stronger state from day to day, during 4 or 5 days, till the guts are well 

 bleached and swollen. They must then bo passed through the thimble, and again 

 cleansed with the lixivium ; after which they are washed, spun, or twisted and sul- 

 phured during two hours. They are finally polished by friction, and dried. Some- 

 times they are sulphured twice or thrice before being dried, and are polished between 

 horsehair cords. 



It has been long a subject of complaint, as well as a serious inconvenience to 

 musicians, that catgut strings cannot bo made in England of the same goodness and 

 strength as those imported from Italy. These are made of the peritoneal covering of 

 the intestines of the sheep ; and, in this country, they are manufactured at White- 

 chapel, and probably elsewhere, in considerable quantity ; the consumption of them 

 for harps, as well as for the instruments of the violin family, being very great. Their 

 chief fault is weakness ; whence it is difficult to bring the smaller ones, required for 

 the higher notes, to concert-pitch ; maintaining at the same time, in their form and 

 construction, that tenuity or smallness of diameter which is required to produce a 

 brilliant and clear tone. 



The inconvenience arising from their breaking when in use, and tho expense in the 

 case of harps, where so many are required, are such as to render it highly desirable 

 to improve a manufacture which, to many individuals may, however, appear suf- 

 ficiently contemptible. 



It is well known to physiologists, that the membranes of lean animals are far more 

 tough than those of animals which are fat or in high condition ; and there is no reason 

 to doubt that tho superiority of tho Italian strings arises from the state of the sheep 

 in that country. In London, where no lean animals are slaughtered, and where, indeed, 



