The radical cure of hernia by the antiseptic use of the carbolized catgut ligature / by Henry O. Marcy.

  • Marcy, Henry O. (Henry Orlando), 1837-1924.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The radical cure of hernia by the antiseptic use of the carbolized catgut ligature / by Henry O. Marcy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    13/30
    ancient Egyptian harp, and hence probably of the Arabic, were made of catgut. Homer, in the Odys- sey, speaks of the strings of the old Greek harp as made of the twisted intestine of the sheep. Catgut was suggested as a proper substance for sutures and ligatures by the learned Dr. Thomas Young, of Edinburgh. See his Introduction to Med- ical Literature, 1813, p. 448, where he says, “I have often wished to try ligatures made of catgut which might be absorbed.” In the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal for 1818, vol. xv., p. 155, he states that he had proposed catgut ligatures to several sur- gical friends ten years previously, or in 1808. To Dr. Physick, of Philadelphia, is undoubtedly due the honor of having first introduced animal liga- tures into surgical practice. His ligatures were made of chamois leather. Silk may be considered an ani- mal product, but however used, even when carbolized and inclosed in a wound which readily heals by first intention, the softened fibres usually act as an irritant? and are later discharged by the processes of suppur- ation. Animal tissues made but indifferent ligatures; and were practically long since abandoned. They were soft, slippery upon being immersed in water, and were by no means strong. To Professor Joseph Lister we are indebted for a most important modification of the catgut ligature. In his enthusiastic devotion to his new ideas of the possible repair of tissue, he had observed that, under antiseptic dressings, clots of blood and large pieces of dead skin and other tissues had disappeared with- out suppuration; therefore he inferred that small