On the comparative size of the hand of the accoucheur and of the female pelvis / by George King.
- Date:
- 1851
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On the comparative size of the hand of the accoucheur and of the female pelvis / by George King. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![Imt in none of them have I been able to discover tlie slightest notice or reference to tlic size of the hand and arm, which is, and should be so considered, a matter of primary consideration, and ought to he noticed by them. They all give a most minute de- scription of the various deformities of, as well as the diameter of, the outlet of the female pelvis, through which the hand is to be passed, and pages are written on the size and the choice of a catheter, or an ojsophagus or rectum bougie, which is to be used I'or dilating those natural pas&iiges; but of the only instrument that can safely Ite used for tlie purpose of dilating the vagina, in order to get at tlie contents of the uterus, nothing is said. From tlie universal silence, we may be naturally led to think or suppose that all men’s hands and arms are invariably of the same shape and size, and that, therefore, any allusion to it was useless and unnecessary in any catechisms or instructions that maj' be pub- lished or given to a tyro on his entering into this peculiar branch of the profession. Although midwifery is considered by the pure surgeon to be beneath his notice, and by others as a practice de- tached from physic and surgery, yet it partakes of both; and those who have made the medical profession their choice, and wish to rise in it, will find they must practice midwifery, and there is no part of our profession so likely to bring them before the public and into notice, as this. However degrading or derogatory it may appear to the pure surgeon to be thus en- gaged, the obstetric practitioner will find that in this department of his profession, not only his knowledge of the most intricate parts of anatomy and physiology will be required, but all his skill and energies, as well as moral courage, will be brought into action, in tlie performance of the most distressing and perhaps the most bold and dillicult operations of surgery, and the most perplexing and frightful cases of the practice of medicine, and in tliose surgical operations the size of the hand will be of the greatest im])ortancc ; yet it is unnoticed, and no one would for a moment imagine that there was any dift’crence or variation in tlie structure and size of human beings, and that all men must naturally he of one uniform form and size, and that there was, or is, no such thing among the human race as giants or dwarfs, and large, bony, muscular men, as well as small, tlnn,and slender skeleton-dike men. These dis- pr-portions and differences in the form of the human frame are altogether passed over or forgotten by all writers and teachers of the obstetric practice. Tlierc arc also persons practising medicine, and surgery, and midwifery, with monstrous large hands and arms, (as large as a sign-post,) while others Iiavc small delicate hands, with very thin and slender arms. There cannot be a doubt i\s to wliich of these would be the fittest and ought to be selected ibr the practice of operative midwifery, and I consider that the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21953521_0006.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
