ii6 ON THE CATGUT LIGATURE 



said that, in order to test the quahty of catgut, you must have it steeped in 

 blood-serum. I have tested in this manner catgut prepared in various ways. 

 The serum has sometimes been putrid, sometimes it had no smell at all, and 

 sometimes it had a little odour. The serum has been kept about the temperature 

 of the body, but I have never seen the shghtest indication of any chemical 

 solution of the catgut. Then, again, as to the behaviour of the catgut in the 

 body : suppose we use it as a stitch, if the catgut were disposed of as a matter 

 of chemical solution, we should expect that, when it is employed as a suture 

 and a piece of our protective is put over it, which is always kept moist with 



Fig. I . — In this woodcut, the suture referred to is represented magnified 

 five diameters. Its actual thickness was one-fiftieth of an inch. The part 

 between a and b is that which had been among the tissues. 



'^o 



serum perpetually oozing from the wound, the outer parts of the stitch, the 

 parts outside the skin, as well as the parts among the tissues, would show signs 

 of diminution. It is never so. The diminution is always absolutely limited to 

 the parts within the tissues. It is still more striking, as was suggested to me 

 by Mr. Cheyne, to consider the case of catgut used as a drain. There its very 

 function is to drain out the serum, and it is perpetually washed with it. You 

 might suppose that a stitch might perhaps become a little dry ; but here there 

 can be no mistake ; the serum from the wound is perpetually flowing over the 

 gut, yet, as in the case of the suture, we find the diminution of the catgut is 

 absolutely limited to the part within the tissues. This seems to me sufficient 

 evidence that it is not a question of mere chemical solution of the catgut, but of 

 disposal of the catgut in some way or other by the living textures. 



