ii8 ON THE CATGUT LIGATURE 



of the calf in which I first estabhshed the fact of the substitution of new Hving 

 tissue for the dead old tissue of the catgut.^ If any gentleman will examine 

 the specimen after the meeting, he will see the ligatures of new formation in- 

 corporated with the external cellular coat of the artery. I have been strangely 

 misunderstood as having intended to convey the idea that the catgut, when 

 it becomes organized, comes to life again. Gentlemen, such an absurd notion 

 certainly never entered into my head ; any more than, when I have spoken 

 of the organization of a blood-clot, I have meant by that expression to convey 

 the idea that the blood-clot becomes organized by its own inherent virtue. 

 I found the term ' organization ' ready to my hand ; it was not a word of my 

 invention. It had been used with reference to lymph. Now, pathologists, in 

 speaking of lymph as becoming organized, did not, I suspect, mean by that 

 expression to imply that it was the lymph-substance that had the power of 

 self-organization, as distinguished from any influence that surrounding tissues 

 might exert upon it. So in the same way the expression ' vascularization of 

 lymph ' was used when it was universally believed by pathologists that the 

 new blood-vessels were formed only as loops from pre-existing blood-vessels. 

 Nowadays a different view may be taken, but the term * vascularization of 

 lymph ' was employed without any notion that the lymph itself created the 

 blood-vessels. And so when I spoke of the organization of the blood-clot or 

 of catgut I never meant to convey the idea that the one or the other did the 

 work itself. As to the blood-clot, we know that if it remains free from putre- 

 faction among the tissues, it speedily becomes infiltrated with cells of new 

 formation. Whether the white corpuscles originally present in the clot take 

 any part in the formation of these new cells is a question now under discussion, 

 and one, I conceive, not at all prejudiced by the use of the term ' organization of 

 the blood-clot '. With regard to catgut, I think, if gentlemen would refer to 

 my original paper in the Lancet^^ they would see that I stated very explicitly 

 that new tissue forms at the expense of the old, that the old tissue is absorbed 

 by the new, and that as the old is absorbed, new is put down in its place. 



In conclusion, gentlemen, I venture to recommend the new chromic catgut 

 as in all respects deserving of your confidence, and at the same time to thank 

 you sincerely for the patient attention with which you have listened to this, 

 address. 



^ See p. 5 of this volume. ^ Ibid. 



