BOUGIE (French bougie, a candle), a long cylindrical surgical instrument for dilating the urethra, the rectum, or the oesophagus, in cases of stricture. Bougies vary as to their materials, size, and shape, and are solid or hollow, stiff or flexible, according to their particular use. Some bougies are of steel, silver, &c.; others are made of slips of waxed linen rolled cylindrically, or by covering a fine cord of flax or silk with successive coatings of linseed-oil, inspissated by boiling, and rendered drying by litharge; after which, they are
smoothed by rolling on a slab, and then polished. The best elastic bougies are made of caoutchouc dissolved in a mixture of drying linseed-oil and turpentine; or, still better, of caoutchouc dissolved in sulphuric ether. Medicated bougies also are employed in surgery.