Various causes necessitate the use of a ligature to control hemorrhage or to decrease the blood supply.  A vessel may be severed, ruptured or dilated and as a result, require complete or partial closure.  The ligatures employed were usually absorbable that they may prove no obstacle to securing primary closure of the wound.  Control of the vessel required the use of either a forceps or a tenaculum.  In the case of the latter, the sharp tenaculum was passed through the cut end of the vessel and by drawing the vessel away from the surface of the wound a ligature could be secured just beyond the tenaculum.