Catgut

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Catgut

Catgut is a type of cord usually prepared from the intestine

Intestine

In anatomy, the intestine is the segment of the Gastrointestinal tract extending from the stomach to the anus and, in humans and other mammals, consists of two segments, the small intestine and the large intestine....
s of sheep

Sheep

#REDIRECT Domestic sheep...
or goat

Goat

The domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the Bovidae family and is closely related to the sheep: both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae....
. It can also be made using the intestine

Intestine

Horse

The horse is a hoofed mammal, a subspecies of one of seven extant species of the family Equidae. The horse has evolution of the horse over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, odd-toed ungulate animal of today....
, mule

Mule

In its common modern meaning, a mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse.Mules are classified as an F1 hybrid.The term "mule" was formerly applied to the infertile offspring of any two creatures of different species....
, pig

Pig

Pigs, also called hogs or swine, are a genus of even-toed ungulates within the Family Suidae. The name pig, hog, or swine most commonly refers to the Domestic pig in everyday parlance, but technically encompasses several distinct species, including the Wild Boar....
or donkey

Donkey

The 'donkey' or 'ass', Equus africanus asinus, is a Domestication member of the Equidae or horse family, and an Odd-toed ungulates. The wild ancestor of the donkey is the Wild Ass, E....
. In spite of the name, however, this type of cord is never prepared from cat

Cat

The cat , also known as the Domestication cat or house cat to distinguish it from other Felinae and Felidae, is a small predationy carnivore species of crepuscular mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and its ability to hunt vermin, snakes, scorpions, and other unwanted household pests....
intestine

Intestine

Fiddle

The term fiddle refers to a violin; it is a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including European classical music....
. It is thought to have been confused at some point with the word kitty for little cat.

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Encyclopedia

Catgut is a type of cord usually prepared from the intestine

Intestine

Sheep

#REDIRECT Domestic sheep...
or goat

Goat

Intestine

Horse

Mule

Pig

Donkey

Cat

Intestine

Etymology

The word catgut may have originated from the word kitgut, or kitstring, the word kit meaning fiddle

Fiddle

Production

In order to prepare catgut, the intestines are cleaned, freed from fat, and steeped for some time in water. After that, the external membrane is scraped off with a blunt knife. The intestines are then once again steeped

Steeping

Steeping or weltering may mean:#Soaking in liquid until saturation with a soluble ingredient, as in, for example, the steeping of tea. In the case of herbal tea, it is referred to as decoction, and may also be called maceration....
for some time, in an alkaline lye

Sodium hydroxide

Sodium hydroxide , also known as lye, caustic soda and sodium hydrate, is a caustic metallic Base . Sodium hydroxide forms a strong alkaline solution when dissolved in a solvent such as water, however, only the hydroxide ion is basic....
, and then smoothed and equalized by drawing out. Next, they are subjected to the antiseptic

Antiseptic

Antiseptics are antimicrobials that are applied to living biological tissue/skin to reduce the possibility of infection, sepsis, or putrefaction....
action of the fumes of burning sulfur

Sulfur

Sulfur or sulphur is the chemical element that has the atomic number 16. It is denoted with the symbol S. It is an abundant Valence non-metal....
, dyed if necessary, sorted into sizes, and twisted together into cords of various numbers of strands according to their uses. The best strings for musical instruments are reputedly from Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
, “Roman strings”, and it is found that lean and ill-fed animals yield the toughest gut.

Common uses

For a long time, catgut was the most common material for the strings

Strings (music)

A string is the Vibrating string that is the source of vibration in string instruments, such as the guitar, harp, piano, and members of the violin family....
of harp

Harp

The 'harp' is a stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicular to the Sounding board. It is also considered to be a percussion instrument....
s, violin

Violin

The violin is a Bow string instrument with four strings usually tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello....
s, and viol

Viol

The viol is any one of a family of bow , fretted, stringed instruments musical instruments developed in the 1400s and used primarily in the Renaissance music and Baroque music periods....
s, as well as other stringed musical instruments

String instrument

A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones....
, although most musical instruments produced today use strings with cores made of other materials, generally steel or synthetic. Catgut is still used as a high-performance string

Strings (tennis)

In tennis, the strings are the part of a racquet#Tennis which make contact with the ball. The strings form a woven network inside the head of the racquet....
in tennis racquets, although it had more popularity in the past and is being displaced by high-quality synthetic strings. Other uses of catgut include hanging the weights of clock

Clock

A clock is an instrument used for indicating and maintaining the time and passage thereof. The word clock is derived ultimately from the Celtic languages words clagan and clocca meaning "bell"....
s and for bow

Bow (weapon)

A bow is a weapon that projects arrows powered by the elasticity of the bow. Essentially, it is a form of Spring . As the bow is drawn, energy is stored in the limbs of the bow and transformed into rapid motion when the string is released, with the string transferring this force to the arrow....
-strings.

There is currently some debate about whether to continue using catgut in a medical setting, seeing as cotton

Cotton

Cotton is a soft, staple fiber that grows in a form known as a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, India and Africa....
has proved to be cheaper and wounds sewed using cotton or synthetic thread are less prone to infection

Infection

An infection is the detrimental colonization of a host organism by a foreign species. In an infection, the infecting organism seeks to utilize the host resources to multiply ....
.

Catgut

Etymology

Production

Common uses

External links