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.)

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    retiring backward, by w> ich tbe vertex (or thv part of the childs head on which the hair diverges) and which is commonly the pre- senting part, is allowed to slip more easily from under the pubcs — When the coccyx i* pushed as far back as it will commonly yield, the depth of the brim at this part is about five and a half or six in- ch, s from the brim at M 1. to the sharp process of he ischium at G. and a^ain from M. to F. the blunt tuber of the ischium three and a ha f inches; and before, where the deptn of the fieivis is no more than that ol the fiubes H. about one and a half or at most two inches. The knowledge of these circumstances will prevent the midwife from being deceived in forming an opinion, how far the childs htad ha» advanced during labour; for although it may readily be felt un- der the fiubes, she must not therefore conclude it has descended much, if at all below the brim of the fieivis unless by passing the finger back, she can at the same time discover it filling the hollow of the Sacrum as ai L. and beginning to rest on the coccyx at D. This plate dso shews the hollow of the Sacrum which grea-ly enlarges the size o. the fieivis below the btim, and allows the childs head, as soon as it has passed the brim, to retire bickwards, as it sinks down upon the coccyx, whose mobility has already bten men- tioned In some subjects a little advanced in life the coccyx is not only united as one bone to the sicrum, but he small bom s of which it is composed are likewise firmly uni t< d - ith each oth r; so that it makes some resistance, and increases the difficulty of th<- first birth. The contractions of the ^cmb however will overcome this difficulty, and it has often been kno*n to g'fve wa with a crack heard b* the Midwife and attendants, afu r this, in subsequent labours, the same difficulty seldom occuis. 1 he foregoing remarks will serve the reader as explanatory of a regular or weJl formed Pelvis.—She has yet to be inlotmed, that ihere are some irregularities in the Pelvis of some Females, which rentiers labour tedious or difficult. To explain these detor- milies the following section is ananged for their satisfaction— SECTION 2. Of (he Dtjormitics oj the Pelvis. The different states in which the dimensions cf the Pelvis vary so much from those alieady described, as to distuib the natural or- der of l.bour and rendet it more or less difficult, ought to be ac- counted as so many deformities: If we consider ihtm relative to that function, ihcy all consist in the excess or defect ol size in the cavi- ty of the Pelvis — These principal faults mt»y affect all p its of the Pelvis or one alone; and olten one of these faults is the consequence of no her, gr arises from Hie same cause. The variety of these faults are eo B