METALLIC SUTURES. 
35 
employ it largely. Indeed, it forms our only vesicant. We 
think its action more to be depended upon than that of 
cantharides, and it has other advantages over these latter 
beetles, being less expensive and forming a neater com¬ 
pound. 
Facts and Observations, 
METALLIC SUTURES. 
Sutures made of metal have been for a long time used 
by veterinary surgeons, those of tin being preferred on 
account of their flexibility. Professor Simpson,” says the 
Medical Times and Gazette , “ proposes to treat hydrocele by 
the use of a metallic seton, as a far safer proceeding than 
tapping and injecting. Believing that metallic wires passed 
through the sac of a hydrocele would act, first by draining 
off the fluid, and secondly by exciting adhesive inflammation, 
he put his idea to the test on a patient of Dr. Young's. The 
sac was first transfixed from below upwards by a long- 
handled needle. The eye was then threaded with three or 
four fine pieces of iron wire. By withdrawing the needle 
the seton was drawn into its place and fixed. The fluid 
drained off in a few hours. Adhesive inflammation set in 
and went on for two days, when it began to subside. The 
wires were removed on the third day, and the case was re¬ 
garded as a complete cure, the vaginal sac being firm and 
consolidated. For tying arteries and arresting bleeding in 
surgical operations, Dr. Simpson is showing that metallic 
sutures are also likely to be very useful. Dr. J. Murray tied 
the carotids of a cat with palladium wire seven months ago, 
and Dr. Simpson showed these vessels lately in Edinburgh. 
They were completely obliterated, and there had been so 
little thickening or exudation around them that it was difficult 
at first to trace them. Had they been organic ligatures of 
silk or hemp, they would long before seven months had 
elapsed have set up suppurative action. These facts should 
be known to practical men—they are likely to have great 
influence on the surgery of the 4 good time coming.'" 
[The iron wire used by Dr. Simpson, as suture-thread, is 
the common blue iron wire, No. 32 of the wire-measurer’s 
gauge.] 
