Surgery, is a cord, band, or string; or the binding any part of the body with a cord, band, fillet, &c., whether of leather, linen, or any other matter.
Ligatures are used to extend or replace bones that are broken or dislocated; to tie the patients down in lithotomy and amputations; to tie upon the veins in phlebotomy, on the arteries in amputations, or in large wounds; to secure the splints that are applied to fractures; to tie up the processes of the peritoneum with the spermatic vessels in castration; and, lastly, in taking off warts or other excrescences by ligature.
Ligature, is also used to signify a kind of bandage or fillet, tied round the neck, arm, leg, or other part of the bodies of men or beasts, to divert or drive off some disease, accident, &c.
Ligature, is also used for a state of impotency, in respect to venery, pretended to be caused by some charm or witchcraft.
Kämpfer tells of an uncommon kind of ligature or knotting, in use among the people of Macaffir, Java, Malacca, Siam, &c. By this charm or spell, a man binds up a woman, and a woman a man, so as to put it out of their power to have to do with any other person; the man being thereby rendered impotent to any other woman, and all other men impotent with respect to the woman.
Some of their philosophers pretend, that this ligature may be effected by the shutting of a lock, the drawing of a knot, or the sticking of a knife in the wall, at the point of time wherein the priest is joining a couple together; and that a ligature, thus effected, may be dissolved, by the spouse's urining through a ring. This piece of superstition is said to obtain also among the Christians of the East.
The same author tells us, that during the ceremony of marriage in Russia, he observed an old fellow lurking behind the church-door, and mumbling over a string of words; and, at the same time, cutting a long rod, which he held under his arm into pieces; which, it seems, is a common practice at the marriages of great persons, and done with design to elude and counterwork any other person that might possibly be inducing the ligature.
The secret of inducing a ligature is delivered by the same author, as he was taught it on the spot by one of their adepts: but it is too absurd and obscene to deserve being transcribed here.
M. Martial mentions a ridiculous form of ligature, which he received from a brahmin of Indostan: "If (says he) the little worm in the wood lukerrara kara be cut into two, and the one part stirs and the other not, if the stirring part be bruised, and given with half a beetle to a man, and the other half to a woman, the charm will keep each from ever having to do with any other person." Phil. Trans. No 268.
the Italian music, signifies a tying or binding together of notes. Hence syncopes are often called ligatures, because they are made by the ligature of many notes. There is another sort of ligatures for breves, when there are many of these on different lines, or on different spaces, to be sung to one syllable.
Ligatures, among printers, are types consisting of two letters or characters joined together; as Θ, ψ, Φ, β, f. The old editions of Greek authors are extremely full of ligatures; the ligatures of Stephens are by much the most beautiful. Some editions have been lately printed without any ligatures at all; and there was a design to explode them quite out of printing. Had this succeeded, the finest ancient editions would in time have grown useless: and the reading of old manuscripts would have been rendered almost impracticable to the learned themselves.