Case of delivery, without operative aid, through a pelvis extremely deformed by malacosteon / by J.Y. Simpson.

  • James Young Simpson
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Case of delivery, without operative aid, through a pelvis extremely deformed by malacosteon / by J.Y. Simpson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    long by I broad, proved unnecessarily large for the experiment. We dunmished it by filling it up at one end with strong, thick, and perfectly unyielding sole leather, so that the whole opening measured only 2| inches in its largest, by | of an inch in its shortest diameter; and yet through this aperture (of which the ac- companying wood-cut gives the exact outline),' the child was pulled without any great degreeof forceordifficulty. In dragging the infant through this aperture no particular resistance was met with from the bones of the head and face; but the size of the liver impeded its transit for a minute or two,^ as the lower part of the thorax was passing through the metallic opening. Dr Graham, Dr Ziegler, Dr Weir, Mr Wise- man, &c., witnessed these experiments with me; and, if our limited time had allowed us to remain longer in Cupar, and to have got another plate perforated, probably we would have found the child capable of pass- ing through an aperture one or two lines smaller in some of its dimensions. The placenta had been preserved. It was small and atrophic, and contained scat- tered through it a number of those white tubercles (as they are sometimes improperly termed), which we so often see connected with, and causing marasmus and death of the fcetus in utero. Some of these tubercles or fibrinous deposits were of the size of hazel- nuts, or larger. The history of the delivery had been this. Slight labour pains had come on during the afternoon of the 27th. She was seen in the course of the evening by Drs Graham and Grace and Mr Wiseman, who found the os uteri beginning to dilate, but the pains were not severe, and the husband and attendants of Mrs D. all went to bed. About one o'clock in the morning of the 28th Mr Wiseman was raised, the Avaters having broken about an hour pre- viously, and the uterine contractions having become strong and beai'ing down. When Mr Wiseman reached the house of the pa- tient, he found the soft scalp of the child ah-eady bulging through the external parts. Some detached bones, included in the portion of scalp that had passed, allowed him to obtain a firm hold of the protruded portion of the head, and thus enabled him to use some extractive foi'ce. By thus assisting the effects of the pains, the child was entirely born about half an hour after Mr Wiseman's arrival. The mother has made a very good recovery, and declares that having a child is nothing. ' The peiforaterl iron ])late and sni)eia(lclcil piece of leather, are carefully preserved iu the Ubatetric Museum of the University.