Catgut

Catgut is the name applied to cord of great toughness and tenacity prepared from the intestines of sheep/goat, or occasionally from those of the hog, horse, mule and ass. Those of the cat are not employed, and therefore it is supposed that the word is properly kitgut ("violin string"), kit meaning "fiddle," and that the present form has arisen through confusion with kit = cat.

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The substance is used for the strings of harps and violins, as well as other stringed musical instruments, for hanging the weights of clocks, for bow-strings, and for suturing wounds in surgery. Catgut formerly was also used for stringing racquets.

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To prepare it the intestines are cleaned, freed from fat, and steeped for some time in water, after which their external membrane is scraped off with a blunt knife. They are then steeped for some time in an alkaline lye, smoothed and equalized by drawing out, subjected to the antiseptic action of the fumes of burning sulphur, if necessary dyed, 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 ("Roman strings"); and it is found that lean and ill-fed animals yield the toughest gut.

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Intestine: The intestine is the portion of the alimentary canal extending from the stomach to the anus and, in humans and mammals, consists of two segments, the small intestine and the large intestine. In humans, the small intestine is further subivided into the duodenum, jejunum and ileum while the large inte...

Sheep: :This article is about the animal, sheep; for other meanings of Sheep, see Sheep (disambiguation)....

Goat: : This article is about goats, the animals. For the web comic, see Goats (comic)....