A compend of domestic midwifery : for the use of female practitioners, being an appendix to Buchan's Domestic medicine.

  • Shecut, John L. E. W. (John Linnaeus Edward Whitridge), 1770-1836.
Date:
1815
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A compend of domestic midwifery : for the use of female practitioners, being an appendix to Buchan's Domestic medicine. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    17/64
    SECTION 4. 0/ the Bones of the childs head, ifc. The Divine Wisdom in the structure of the fatal head has so wisely ordered it, tha, from the loose and imperfect manner in which the bones are formed and connected at birth, they are capable of being moulded into the proper shape for passing more easil. through the brim and lower opening of the pelvis, especially when that is not perfectly well formed The imperfect edges of th£se bon.'s and their membranous connections, not only permit them to approach, but when it is necess try, to oveihp each other considerably; and, with little or no injury to the child, admit so great a change oi shape that the dimen- sions ol the head are on some occasions completely changed; and the vertex or crown is pushed out into the form of a sugar loaf, by which the difficulties occasioned by the large size of tne head, and b/ all the leaser degrees of contraction and deformity of the fielvisj are so far diminished as to manifest, that but for this wise and be- nevolent formation, many children must have perished, or man* wo- hicn have died un-delivered. The dimensions of the chillis head ate naturally so much less than those of the op nings of the jtelvis, as to leave sufficient room for the fle-hy c verings with which the pelvis is lined: the longest diameter ol the head is from the forehead to the hind head, about four or four inches and a quarter j and the shortest from ear to ear, about three or three and a quarter inches.— On this subject M. liaudeloeque observes that if w« compare ihe dimension* of a childs head with those of a well formed fietvis, we shall see clearly that Uu latter mi^ht h,.ve some inches less in its circumference, and yet be lar^e enough for an easy delivery: a com- mon sized head, when it passes through that cunal, presenting a circumference of no more than ten inches and a quarter, or ten and a half, only requires a passage of that size—As the childs head enters the /wlvis with one ear to tht /iub,a and. the Other to the «buc- rwn or rat hi 1' a li.tle diagonally towards the opposite sides of these bones, and continues in that direction until the basis ot the skull pusses the bnm of the pelvis: it ihen begins to turn, where it finds leas, resistance, ihe pains forcing it down, whilst the sharp processes ol the ischia (plate 2d, G (i ) pressing diagonally on ihe sides of the head, one towaids the crown and the other towards the forehead on the opposite side, compel it as it descends to turn with its longest diameter towards the longest diameter of the fietvis; until the lace foils into the hollow ol the Sacrum (as at L. plate 3d,) the nape of the neck against the flube's and .he Vertex or crown to the external orifice. Whilst the head of the child is making these turns, so as constantly to present its longest diameter to the longest diameter of the fit/vis, the body of the child makes similar turns, so as to enter the pehia with the shoulders from side to side: but as they descend, tbey are likewise by the same powers compelled to turn, by which means when they arrive at the lower opening of ihe fielvi* one C