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672 
'they fhould be diflocated with exercife. Quincy. —The in¬ 
cus is one way joined to the malleus, the other end being 
a procefs is fixed with a ligament to the ftapes. Holder. 
Be all their ligaments at once unbound, 
And their disjointed bones to powder ground. Sandys. 
[In popular or poetical language.] Any thing which con¬ 
nects the parts of the body: 
Though our ligaments betimes grow weak, 
We mull not force them tiil themfelves they break. Denk. 
Bond ; chain ; entanglement.—Men fometimes, upon the 
hour of departure, do fpeak and reafon above themfelves; 
for then the foul, beginning to be freed from the ligaments 
of the body, reafons like herfelf, and difcourfes in a (train 
above mortality. Addifon's SpcElalor. 
LIGAMEN'TAL, or Ligamen'tous, adj. Compofing 
a ligament.—The urachos, or ligamental paffage, ia de¬ 
rived from the bottom of the bladder, whereby it dif- 
chargeth the watery and urinary part of its aliment. 
Brown's Vulgar Errours. —The clavicle is inferted into the 
firft bone of the fternon, and bound in by a ltror.g liga¬ 
mentous membrane. Wijeman. 
LI'GAN, f [from Her, Fr. to tie.] A wreck-confiding of 
goods funk in the fea, but tied to a cork or buoy, in or¬ 
der to be found again. Over thefe, as well as flotfam 
and jetfam, the high-admiral hath jurifdiction, as they 
are in and upon the fea. See Flotsam, and the article 
Wreck . 
LIGA'NI, a town of Turkifh Armenia: thirty miles 
ea(t of Ifpira. 
LIGAR'DES, a town of France, in the department of 
the Gers : feven miles north-ealt of Condom, and eight 
north-weft of Leftoure. 
LIGA'RIUS (Quintus), a Roman proconful in Af¬ 
rica, 49 B. C. Taking part with Pompey, he was for¬ 
bidden by Julius Coefar to return to Rome ; to obtain his 
pardon, Cicero made that admired oration in his defence 
which has immortalized the memory of the client with 
that of the advocate. 
LIGA'TION, f [ ligatio , Lat.] The act of binding. 
The ftate of being bound.—The dumber of the body feems 
to be but the waking of the foul; it is the ligation of fenfe, 
but the liberty of reafon. Addifon. 
LIG'ATURE, f. [ligatura, Lat.] Any thing tied round 
another; a bandage.—If you flit the artery, and thruft 
into it a pipe, and call a (trait ligature upon that part of 
the artery ; notwithftanding the blood hath free paffage 
through the pipe, yet will not the artery beat below the 
ligature-, but, do but take off the ligature, it will beat im¬ 
mediately. Ray on the Creation. —The many ligatures of our 
Englifh drefs check the circulation of the blood. SpeSlator. 
—The act of binding.—Any ftoppage of the circulation 
will produce a dropfy, as by ftrong ligature or compreflion. 
Arbuthnol on Diet. —The ftate of being bound. Not very pro¬ 
per. —Sand and gravel grounds eafily admit of heat and 
moifture, for which they are not much the better, becaufe 
they let it pafs too foon, and contract no ligature. Morti¬ 
mer's Hujbandry. 
Licature, in mufic, fignifies a tying or binding toge¬ 
ther of notes; alfo the mark which binds them. 
Ligatures, among printers, are types confiding of 
two letters or characters joined together, as, SI, &,jf. 
The old editions of Greek authors are extremely full of 
ligatures ; but they are little ufed in modern printing. 
Ligature, in furgery, is a cord, band, firing, fillet, 
Sec. whether of leather, linen, or any other matter, ufed 
to extend or replace bones that are broken or diflocated ; 
to tie the patients down in lithotomy and amputations; 
to tie upon the veins in phlebotomy, on the arteries in 
amputations or in large wounds ; to fecure the fplints that 
are applied to fraCtures; to tie tip the proceffes of the pe¬ 
ritonaeum with the fpermatic veffels in caftraticn; and, 
laftly, in taking off warts or other excrefcences. 
ligature is the only means to be depended upon for 
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putting a permanent flop to all bleedings from arteries of 
confiderable fize. In ordinary cafes, the mouth of the 
bleeding veffel, being expofed," is taken hold of with the 
tenaculum, or forceps, and tied. In fome inlfances, the 
artery being only punAmed, and not cut through, nor 
brought into view, the furgeon has firft to cut down to 
the wounded portion of the veffel, and then pafs a double 
ligature under it by means of an aneurifm-needle, or an 
eye-probe; the latter inftrument, having fulfilled its office, 
is to be removed by dividing the double-ligature with a 
pair of feiffors. Whoever is acquainted with the hiftory 
of furgery, muff: be fully fenfible of the immenfe advan¬ 
tage which the moderns have over the ancients in the fa¬ 
miliar employment of ligatures for the ftoppage of he¬ 
morrhage. But, although many years have elapfed fince 
this important improvement in practice began, it was 
not till very lately that feveral mod interefting circum- 
ftances, relative to the ufe of the ligature, were brought 
to light. For this elucidation of a difficult, though 
highly momentous, fubjeft to the practical furgeon, we 
are indebted to the judgment, accuracy, and talents, of 
Dr.J. F.D. Jones, whole Treatife on Hemorrhage demands 
the earned attention of every enlightened practitioner. 
Before this work appeared, fcarcely any furgeon had a 
juft conception of the manner in which ligatures effected 
the fuppreffion of hemorrhage; nor were the principles 
on which they ought to be made and applied properly 
underftood. One of the firft and mod material effefts of 
a ligature applied to an artery, is to produce a divifion of 
the middle and internal coats of the veffel. This faft 
was communicated to Dr. Jones by Mr. Tho'mfon of 
Edinburgh, and is alleged to have been known to the 
celebrated M. Default of Paris. The inner coats of the 
artery, thus cut through by the preffure of the ligature, 
are in the fitted ftate for inflaming and effufing coagula- 
ble lymph, and, in ftiort, for undergoing that procefs, by 
which the permanent clofure of the veffel is to be accom¬ 
panied. Hence, ligatures fhould not be thick, irregular, 
and clumfy ; but fmalliffi, firm, and round ; and they 
fhould be applied with tightnefs, as it is of confequence 
that they divide the inner coats of the artery, and the 
fear of their cutting the veffel quite through is deftitute 
of foundation. 
LIGE'A, the name of one of the fea-nymphs. 
LIG'EANCE,/ - . in law, is the true and faithful obedi¬ 
ence of a fubjeft to his fovereign ; and is alfo applied to 
the dominion or territory of the liege lord; thus children 
are faid to be born in or out of the ligeance of the king, 
&c. See Allegiance and Liege. 
LIGE'AS, /. in old records, a liege. 
LFGER, or Ligeris, now Loire , a large river of Gaul, 
falling into the ocean. 
LIGHT, f. [leo}5t, Sax.] The material medium of 
fight; that body by which we fee ; luminous matter .—Light 
is propagated from luminous bodies in time, and fpends 
about feven or eight minutes of an hour inpaffing from 
the fun to the earth. Newton's Optics .—State of the elements 
in which things become vifible; oppofed to darknefs .— 
God called the light day, and the darknefs he called night. 
Genejis. 
So alike thou driv’ft away 
Light and darknefs, night and day. Carew, 
Power of perceiving external objefts by the eye: oppofed 
to blindnefs .— My ftrength faileth me; as for the light of 
mine eyes, it alfo is gone from me. P/alms. 
If it be true that light is in the foul. 
She all in every part, why was the fight 
To fuch a (lender ball as th’ eye confin’d. 
So obvious and fo eafy to be quench’d. 
And not, as feeling, through all parts diffus’d. 
That (lie might look at will through ev’ry pore ? Milton. 
Day.—The murderer, rifing with the light , killeth tire 
poor. Job. 
Ere 
