[Reprinted from The Medical News, December 5, 1891.] 
RAT-TAIL SUTURES. 
By E. OLIVER BELT, M.D., 
OF WASHINGTON, C. 
About five years ago, while resident physician in the 
Presbyterian Eye and Ear Hospital of Baltimore, I saw 
Dr. Chisolm uses fibers from the tail of an opossum for 
sutures in some of his eye-work. I thought such fibers a 
good substitute for silk, and spoke to my brother, Dr. 
A. M. Belt, about it. Shortly afterward a rat was caught 
at his residence; he had the tail skinned and soaked for 
several days in water, after which, upon slight manipu- 
lation, it separated into perhaps a hundred fibers, each 
about eight inches in length. These were placed in alco- 
hol and presented to me, upon request, for use in eye sur- 
gery. I found the fibers strong and much finer than those 
from the opossum tail, or any other animal suture, and 
have been using them quite extensively in suturing the 
conjunctiva in pterygium operations, and in advancing 
the recti muscles in correcting strabismus. 
These sutures have been most satisfactory. As soon 
as moist they become agreeably soft to the eye, and 
have never to be removed, while silk sutures are rough 
and irritating as long as they remain in the eye, and 
their removal is somewhat painful. Patients from a dis- 
tance are often detained five or six days to have the silk 
stitches removed, when rat-tail sutures might be used 
and the patient allowed to depart immediately. These 
sutures will no doubt be found useful to the general 
surgeon and gynecologist when they need strong and 
fine animal sutures. About once a month, for two or 
three days, I soak the fibers in a corrosive sublimate solu- 
tion (i : 5000), and as I have never had any trouble 
whatever from their use, I think it probable that this 
suffices to render them aseptic.