The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-06-15
SURGEONS MUST SEW.
Intricate Knots Used in Treatment

Intricate Knots Used in Treatment
 of Wounds.
 The use of the needle and thread iii closing wounds has come to be fine art. In former days the surgeons were mere bugglers, and most wounds left hideous scars. But at the present by the manner in which arteries are liga- tured, tendons spliced, intestines sut- ured and wounds closed is the founda- ton of success, no skilled use of the lscalpel taking its place. An English lrailroad hand recently walked into Icut where some lagorers were blast ing rocks. His approach was not not iced and a considerable portion of his body was conveyed several feet dis tant by the explosion.
 1 His left arm was virtually torn from | the socket and a large part of his lscalp had disappeared altogether. The most serious wounds were in the trunk. The abdomen had been split open as if lWith a cleaver and the intestines fell tout. An old army blanket was spread over him and one of the men was about to get a pine box when the silp- posed dead man groaned. His mutt
 Hated body was carried to a hospital with the greatest speed.
 { $, A London surgeon was telegraphed ! for by the local doctor who had been summoned. The intestines, which were covered with dirt and small stones,
 were washed and warmed with tepidI water. There were twelve distinct llacerations of the intestines, which were carefully 1nended with small Istitches. Part of the mans clothing
 was found embedded against the spine | in the depth of the cavity. A small Isilver watch case was found cut near Fly double, where it had been forced il- ito the stomach. These foreign bodies lwere removed and the abdominal space
 was washed with q solution of bi-
 cfloride of mercury. The man fully re-
 lowered and returned to work, but
 the imitation of crazy quilting
 on his hip, where the skin had been Ilacerated in Zigzag fashion, showed
 a design worked by the surgeon which
 would have been the despair of any decorative art worker.
 Some of the knots which form the Ibasis of surgical needlework are most Ingenious. There is the square, or reef knot, which is in most common use. 1t ] is never used for tying arteries of any delicate work. The "clove fiitch'' lis another knot which is found use- lful in surgery. It is never known to Islip and is easy to make. Its chief ob- Iject is to secure a catheter in the blad- lder. It is also used to fasten a scarf lupon limb in order to get a good purchase in reducing a disloeation or a Idefornity of a fracture.
 l. Ligatures are used in many novel Iforms. The tying of bleeding arteries, Ibandages, tapes about limbs to con- ltrol hennorrhages or to prevent the absorption of virus poisoning the blood, las from a reptiles sting, are the uses lof ligaturing in surgery. Those used flor tying arteries are unbleached Unread. A very fine, ductile, 1netollic Unread, generally of silver, has also Imuch used. When there is difficulty in Isecuring a bleeding point, on account lof the friable nature of the tissues or because the latter are too dense to be lpinched by the forceps CT ligature, the lhemorrhage can be arrested by pass ling a suture deeply beneath so as to Include it. It is thus that Horsley con- Itrols hernorrhage in operations on the Ibrain. 'tThe taffordshire knot, d .Imetnod-of applying ligatures, has been
 Continued on Flights Page.)