Dictionary.net

An instrument invented by Deschamps for the immediate compression of arteries. It is composed of a plate six or seven lines long, and three broad, and of a rod or stem two inches long, placed perpendicularly above the plate and riveted. At each extremity of the plate is a hole, through which each of the ends of the ligature, to be placed upon the artery, is passed. The ligature is then to be tightened by drawing the ends, and fixing them to the perpendicular rod. This presse-artere or serre-artere surrounded with charpie, remains in the wound, until there is no longer danger of hemorrhage. The ligature is then cut, and the instrument withdrawn. It is an unnecessary instrument.