Dr. Conquest's outlines of midwifery : intended as a text-book for students, and a book of reference for junior practitioners.

  • Conquest, Dr.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Conquest's outlines of midwifery : intended as a text-book for students, and a book of reference for junior practitioners. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    could not expel full-grown children at the full period of utero-gestation, produced living children when, from accidental circumstances, they aborted between the seventh and eighth month: and this fact led to the introduction of that practice which brings on labour as soon as the child is capable of carrying on the functions of life independent of its mother. The result of this operation has hitherto been, that out of nearly one hundred cases, in which labour has been prematurely induced, about one half of the children, who would otherwise have been inevitably destroyed by the perforator, have been born alive. Before determining on the propriety of this mea- sure, the necessity, and the probable success of it, should always be confirmed by the opinion of a second practitioner of character and experience. The measure cannot be necessary if the woman has previously borne a living child at the full term, unless disease has subsequently diminished the ca- pacity of the pelvis. It should never be adopted unless former labours have demonstrated, most unequivocally, the impos- sibility of a full-grown child being moulded to the passages, and forced through them.* The operation is performed by three diiFerent methods. First, By gently and cautiously carrying the forefinger of the left hand per vaginam, through the OS uteri, and into contact with the membranes, the * Vide a very instructive paper on this subject, in the Third Volume of the Medico-chirurgical Transactions, by ]^r. Mcrriman.