Mane Medicine
An Unusual Use for Horsehair
Don’t worry, they’ve been sterilised!
Far from the synthetic stitch we know and love today, horsehair was once the star of modern surgeries. To reach the operating table, where they were used as sutures, this horsehair underwent a rigorous process to ensure they were suitable for use.
After being precisely collected, measured, and cut, it was boiled and sanitised to enhance its pliability and biocompatibility. The horsehair was then bundled and sold commercially, travelling almost 17,000km from London to Narrabri Hospital.
Narrabri has a long history as a medical base for the west, with the hospital one of the area’s earliest public buildings. Despite inevitable limitations in operating regionally, by importing goods such as these horsehair sutures, Narrabri Hospital ensured they provided the highest quality of practice available.
While it seems unusual, the use of horsehair was widely popular amongst nineteenth and twentieth century medical practitioners for its strength, flexibility, and accessibility. Given the large role horses played in transport, warfare, and farm work, their hair was often readily available to be repurposed.
However, for any residents injured at the time, it would have surely been comforting that the material being used to sew them up had been meticulously prepared, rather than plucked from one of the many horses working within Narrabri’s agricultural hub.
As medical technology advanced, synthetic materials like nylon and polypropylene gradually supplanted horsehair ligatures. In 1944, the Narrabri District Hospital underwent significant redevelopment, signalling the likely transition away from horsehair sutures to more modern alternatives.
