A vindication of the forceps described and recommended by Dr. Leake : in which the injudicious and illiberal remarks on that subject, signed Thomas Denman, are examined and refuted / by a late pupil of Dr. Leake's.

Date:
1783
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A vindication of the forceps described and recommended by Dr. Leake : in which the injudicious and illiberal remarks on that subject, signed Thomas Denman, are examined and refuted / by a late pupil of Dr. Leake's. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    ( [M3 ] It may be obferved, that whatever Dr. Leake recommends, he al- ways gives his reafons for it ; but what you advance is only mere matter of affertion, or if you attempt any thing further, fuch is your fuccefs, that what you endeavour to prove, ftill remains to be proved by fome other perfon. The queftion is—What fhould be done for the fafety of the Mo- ther when her ftrength is exhaufted, and her pains infufficient to bring the Child ; fo that (he is every moment in danger of dying undelivered ?—Dr. Leake admits, there is danger in the Operation, but at the fame time Ihews why there is much more, when it is negledted, and therefore, of two evils, the leaf is to be chofcn ; efpecially fince there is no other alternative, than that one of kill- ing the Child, by opening its head ; for he has fhewn that Smellie's Forceps are much too fhort to reach and extradl it thus fituated, and that it is by no means eligible to turn the child : fo that all you have been able to advance again ft this pradlice, is mere inventive and not argument; being nothing but a few formidable Epithets to excite horror, and to deter the weak and timorous from ufing the Forceps recommended by Dr. Leake ; and left his ingenious Invention of combitjing the allion of the Forceps ajid Lever, fhould chance to pluck a feather out of your wing. You talk of dreadful confequences, and crufhing of heads, as others would talk of cracking nuts; but if fuch reafoning as this could prevail; then the ufe of the fhort Forceps, of which you are fo fond, fhould alio be rejected, even when the Child’s head is below the brim of the Pelvis ; for fear of lacerating the Perinaeum; and for the very fame reafon if it could be found to have any weight, no Surgeon would ever venture to cut for the Stone, left the patient fhould die by the confequence of the Operation. You fay,—It is fuppofed that the hind-head is forced over the Sym- phyfis of the Pubis. Whenever this is the Cafe it is not poftible to apply Forceps of any kind, with advantage, or without the utmoft danger ; and C 2 I call