Needle

“ The needle should always be a little thicker than the thread, to make an easy passage for it through the stuff.
To keep needles from rusting, strew a little stone alum in the packets, and workers whose hands are apt to get damp, should have a small box of it handy, to powder their fingers with. Blackened needles can be made quite bright again by drawing them through an emery cushion. ”

“ The word “stitches” does not, however, in this chapter represent merely the plural of one particular process of needle insertion, but the produce and effect of each different kind of stitch by grouping and repetition, according to its most ancient nomenclature. That which is astonishing is the endless variety of surface, of design, of hints and suggestions, of startling effects, and of lovely combinations, resulting from the direction of the needle and manipulation of the materials, and differing from each other according to the power or the caprice of the worker. ”

“ To test a needle, try to break it; if it resist, and then break clean in two, the steel is good; if it bend without breaking, or break without any resistance, it is bad. Never use a bent needle, it makes ugly and irregular stitches, and see that the eye, whether round or egg-shaped, be well-drilled, that it may not fray or cut the thread. Long or half-long needles are the best for white work, long ones for dress-making, and longer ones still, with long eyes, for darning. ”

“ The preparation of the pattern, in most kinds of needlework, is a most important matter and one requiring the greatest care, but in the case of needle-made lace and pillow lace the processes are different. ”

“ Pocket was at home, and was in a little difficulty, on account of the baby's having been accommodated with a needle-case to keep him quiet during the unaccountable absence (with a relative in the Foot Guards) of Millers. And more needles were missing than it could be regarded as quite wholesome for a patient of such tender years either to apply externally or to take as a tonic. ”

“ Then thread a needle with a hair by the root, and slip it in, 2 or 3 m/m. from the one edge and back again pointed towards you, through the other, so that, neither needle nor hair, are visible on either side. The stitches should be set slightly slanting and must be quite lost in the thickness of the cloth. The needle must always be put in, exactly at the place where it came out, and the hair not be too tightly drawn. ”

“ Sewing cotton No. 100 or 150 and a special needle are the only requirements for this work. The needles can be bought from any art needlework shop for five cents each. It is like a large-sized carpet needle with a small eye. A carpet needle can be substituted if it is not possible to obtain the regular needle in your locality. Tie one end of the thread to the eye of the needle. While practising this stitch it will be necessary to make guide lines. On each side of the design line make a row of dots an eighth of an inch apart. ”

“ When thou wishest to introduce the needle, the eye must be turned towards the light and looking straight at thee; also, I should make the patient turn his eye a little towards his nose, so that thou canst use the instrument better and that thou wilt not injure the small veins of the eye, but respect them. Direct the needle straight and with attention over the membrane called the conjunctiva, straight towards the pupil and uvea, at the distance of two blades of a knife from the membrane called cornea or from the grey that is in the eye. ”

“ Beyond these requirements nothing is wanted save a good stock of pins, thin card or ordinary writing paper, and a 'setting needle.' The last-named item is simply a needle mounted in a handle, and a good one may be made by thrusting the head of a darning needle into a piece of twig. ”

“ Stitches in needlework correspond to the touches of the pencil or brush in drawing or painting, or to the strokes of the chisel in sculpture. The needle is the one implement of the craft by which endless forms of surface-work are executed. With a thread through its one eye, it blindly follows each effort of its pointed foot, urged by the intelligent or mechanical hand grouping the stitches, which, being long or short, single or mixed, slanting, upright, or crossed, are selected as the best fitted for the design and purpose in hand. ”

“ The needle, having no head like a pin to stop it, slips right into the flesh. Sometimes the patient is not certain whether it is there or not, as it may have worked out again, for the danger in these cases arises from the tendency of the needle to travel through the flesh, doing great mischief as it goes along. What is the doctor to do? If he is quite sure that it is there and can feel it, he will of course cut it out; but he has to be very cautious. A needle is so fine and slender, that sometimes, even when he thinks he can feel it with the point of a probe, he finds himself mistaken. ”

“ To work C, bring your needle out as for A, and, putting it in at the upper edge of the line to be worked and pointing it downwards, whilst your thread lies to the right, take up ever so small a piece of the stuff. ”

“ The needle is always to be pointed toward your chest. You may work two or three rows in this way, on [36] the sleeves and shoulders of dresses, &c., which has a handsome effect. You must take great care to bring the needle out between each one of the gathers. ”

“ Stroking gathers (fig. 19) .—When you have run in your gathering thread, draw it up tight, and make it fast round the finger of your left hand, and then stroke down the gathers with a strong needle, so that they lie evenly side by side, pushing each gather, in stroking it, under your left thumb, whilst you support the stuff at the back with your other fingers. ”

“ Needlework is essential for every woman, and facility with the needle is more easily acquired early, say from ten to fourteen, when the fingers are really large enough to use such a delicate instrument as a needle ”

“ Experiment 135. To show that every nerve is independent of any other. Press two fingers closely together. Let the point of the finest needle be carried ever so lightly across from one finger to another, and we can easily tell just when the needle leaves one finger and touches the other. ”

“ One end of the needle is pointed for very small holes or conical recesses, while the other is countersunk for pointed work, as lathe centres. The countersink of the needle may be made less acute than the lathe centre, so that the contact will be at the very point of the lathe centre, the needle not being centre-drilled. The end of the needle that is placed against the work should be as near to the ball or fulcrum as convenient, so as to multiply the errors of work truth as much as possible. ”

“ Though thickest and most abundant on the inner and outer surfaces of the body, every particle of the body substance is shot through and through with a network of these tiny tubes. So close and fine is this network in the skin, for instance, that, as you can readily prove, it is impossible to thrust the point of the finest needle through the skin without piercing one of them and "drawing blood," as we say, or making it bleed. ”

“ How we can run needles into people and produce no blood seems still more remarkable, but physiologically it can be explained. Let me say here that if any one should pierce a large artery with a needle, serious consequences might result. ”

“ Let us suppose that a needle be dropped from one of the seats of Brahmas, and at the same time a man on earth be keeping another needle with the point upwards. It will be more easy for the two needles' extremities to come in contact one with the other, than it will be to a being in the condition of animal to reach the state of man. ”

“ This should be read needle and thread in hand—or skipped. Samplers and other examples of needlework are uniformly on a scale large enough to show the stitch quite plainly. The examples of old work illustrate always, in the first place, some point of workmanship ”

“ It ought never to be forgotten, that the simplicity of any proceeding and of every machine is the measure of their perfection. I have had by me a lot of needles, all very ingenious, at the various operations for aneurism which I have had occasion to perform—many of them of the most difficult nature—and the simple needle has always been found to answer the purpose most perfectly. ”

“ What a mosquito bite, I thought, pulling up my pants.
Shortly afterward another nurse appeared bearing IV solution, tubes, syringes, needles... the works. I laid down as she strapped a tourniquet around my arm and began her search for a vein. It was a slow, meticulous search, which necessitated a smaller needle; she knew she would never probe the large one into any of my poor, tiny veins. The nurse opened a drawer, producing a needle which had plastic tabs on either side of it; "This is called a butterfly needle," she told me. "Butterfly..." ”

“ Put in your needle at the back of the slit, and take up about three threads, bring the working thread round, from right to left under the point of the needle, and draw the needle out through the loop, so that the little knot comes at the edge of the slit, and so on to the end, working from the lower left-hand corner to the right. ”

“ The needle is not in the least like the delicate, slender articles employed by European seamstresses. In the first place, it has no eye; and in the second, it is more like a skewer than a needle. If any of my classical readers will recall to their minds the “stylus” which the ancients used instead of a pen, he will have a very good idea of a Kaffir’s needle.
As the Kaffir likes to carry his needle about with him, he makes a sheath or case of leather. There is great variety in these cases. The simplest are merely made of strips of hide rolled round the needle, and sewed together at the edges. ”

“ A long needle is thrust (between the fifth and sixth ribs) into the heart, a proceeding that is not at all dangerous, provided that the needle does not enter below a certain depth. The needle must be of such length that about one half of it projects from the chest; the slightest movement of the heart will cause that part of the needle which is visible to vibrate. ”

“ Work an inch without shaping, then divide the st, putting half on to one needle for the heel, taking care that the decreasings made come in the centre of the needle.
The Heel.
Make an extra stitch, so that you have an odd number on the needle (you should then have 29 st) , and knit and purl a row alternately (always slipping the first st) until you have worked the same number of rows as you have st on the needle, ending with a purl row. ”

“ By complying with the indications and noting the measurements set down, we inevitably attain our object, on condition, be it understood, that we know where we are and whither we are going, in a word, that we are enlightened as to the real meaning of the Hollow Needle. ”

“ Positive electrode in the hand of the patient, negative pole to the needle holder. The needle is thrust through the growth on a plane with the skin and slightly above it. The current will at once produce a pale color in the mass and white froth will issue about the shaft of the needle. A comparatively greater amount of current is needed for this purpose than with the destruction of hairs. The operator must judge the amount and time required from experience.
The mass is punctured in stellate fashion to assure an even necrosis, as shown in Fig. 518.
[483]
Fig. ”

“ It is said that if we transfix, with a steel needle, a large nerve of a living animal, as the great ischiatic, and let it remain in that condition a suitable time, the needle becomes permanently magnetized. ”

“ The needle, too, is a feature seldom absent from the man’s neck and girdle, being a sharp-pointed bit of iron or brass with which they pierce the skins and fasten them together with threads of bark; these needles are fitted into a wooden case, which the more fanciful decorate with bands of brass wire. ”

“ A needle may be a perfect needle, in every respect adapted for the work for which it was made. It is not, however, a microscopic object; under magnifying power it becomes a rough, honeycombed poker, with a ragged hole in the place of the eye. ”

“ Only one needle insertion is made at each angle, and the mass is injected until a round elevated tumor is attained, which is pinched or squeezed with the fingers into the desired angular form, one finger being placed over the needle opening to avoid squeezing the mass out. ”

“ It is a mistake to be over-timid in attacking floss-silk. It requires a light but firm hand, and should be pulled fairly tight to get it to lie smoothly—a sort of little secondary jerk after drawing the needle through to the back. ”

“ The sharp tube through which they sap their victim’s blood is fully three-quarters of an inch long, and resembles a cambric needle; this they steadily and unhesitatingly press into the flesh until they either strike a bone, or their forehead prevents them from doing deeper injury. ”

“ For the initial puncture in sensitive or inflamed tissue, it is proper to use a needle of the finest lumen so as to cause the least possible amount of pain. The ordinary needle, which comes with the usual hypodermic outfit, is about the proper length for the ordinary work already mentioned, but could be improved upon for anesthesia by being made a little finer in calibre. This length (three-quarters of an inch) will be frequently found insufficient to reach the deeper tissues and in the [Pg 239] removal of a more or less rounded growth, a longer needle must be selected at the start. ”

“ Now for suturing tissues, and more especially tissues of such toughness and thickness as the abdominal parietes, a round needle is absolutely of no use. A surgical needle not only requires to have cutting edges, as our three-cornered needles have, but these edges need to be in good condition to work well. ”

“ On the opposite side a needle is seen put through a hole in a strong spring, held in its place by a catch above, which, when pressed by the thumb disengages it and ejects the needle with considerable force. ”