76 VETERINARY SURGICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
Elastic ligature is an excellent means of hemostatic exeresis. Used 
first in human surgery (Dittel, Grandesso Silvestré), it was afterward 
tried in veterinary by Guérin, Rossignol, Nocard, Cagny, who have 
‘studied its principles and “odus operandi. If it be applied to a 
‘certain thickness of living tissues, the stretched India-rubber cord 
‘acts in a constant manner, as long as it has not returned to its 
primitive dimensions ; in proportion as the tissues are divided, the 
loop diminishes in diameter and produces its dieretic action upon 
the deep layers. This is a great advantage over the simple ligature, 
whose brutal, immediate action becomes weaker quickly and is ex- 
hausted when reaching large peduncles. As soon as the superficial | 
layers are divided, the cord acts only as a foreign body ; to com- 
plete the ablation, it is often necessary to apply a second ligature or 
to tie up the first. 
The elastic loop is without action upon inert bodies, even the less 
resisting, or upon dead substances, but it rapidly divides the living 
ones ; skin, muscles, blood vessels, tendons, and bones. Nothing 
resists it, and the dizeresis is made without hemorrhage; the walls of 
the blood vessels collapse before they are divided, and this cavity 
is obliterated by thrombosis. Cicatrization is quick ; and often the 
wound is relatively small. Its uses are numerous: its application 
is simple. A vulcanized tubular, or firm, cylindrical, or prismatic 
cord, of a size proportioned to the mass to be divided, is used. An 
assistant holds one end, the operator seizes the other,. stretches the 
cord, rolls it round.the peduncle; three or four times are sufficient ; 
and, to fasten both ends, crosses them, passes them to an assistant, 
‘and passing an ordinary thread’ under their crossing, fastens them 
well together with a straight knot. 
For the extirpation of tumor$, when the neoplastic mass has a well 
‘defined peduncle, the application of the elasticloop is easy. When - 
the tumor is wide and not well defined, it is proper to pierce it through 
with one or two metallic needles to secure the fixity of the ligature. 
Rossignol has succeeded in obtaining in fifteen days the slough of a 
‘tumor from the shoulder, having a diameter of 20 centimeters and 
weighing 16 pounds; and in twelve days, that of a growth of the 
hock weighing 3 kilog. Other analogous facts have been recorded. 
Since the experiments of Rossignol and Cagny, the castration of lambs 
with elastic ligature is much practised. 2000 animals, 2 and 3 months old, 
were castrated, during warm weather, by Rossignol, with only 3 cases of 
tetanus. This process is evidently superior to “tearing.” It is also good 
for cattle.* In Egypt, in 1885, Piot operated upon nearly z,oco bulls and 
‘buffaloes, without an accident or complication of any kind. Disinfection of 
the scrotal region, soaking of the cord in the Van Swieten solution; after- 
“wards, antiseptic washes, after six or eight days cutting away of the morti- 
* We have successfully castrated two llamas belonging to the Zoological Garden'of New York, and 
«three camels of the famous Barnum & Bailey Menagerie, with the use of the elastic ligature. (T,) 
