Address in obstetrics and diseases of women and children : delivered at the twenty-eighth annual meeting of the American Medical Association / by James P. White.

  • James Platt White
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Address in obstetrics and diseases of women and children : delivered at the twenty-eighth annual meeting of the American Medical Association / by James P. White. 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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    pose. Indeed, the progressive members of the profession are inclined to fiivor a much more frequent resort to the forceps than the teaching of our preceptors would warrant. In the belief that this instrument, as we find it in the hands of practitioners in this country, is exceedingly defective, the speaker made an effort more than a quarter of a century since to improve its construction. Subsequent experience in the application of the forceps then devised, and careful observation of other forms of the instrument, have confirmed the conviction of its superiority. Confirmation of this opinion has also been afforded by the testi- mony of many intelligent accoucheurs who have used it in this country and in Europe. Some alterations in conformation have been made from time to time, suggested by carefully observing its defects, in the many opportunities afforded for its application in hospital, consultation, and private practice, since its adoption in 1847. I trust the instrument, as now recommended, will be found to combine all the advantages separately possessed by many of the various instruments used by accoucheurs in this country and in Europe. There can be little doubt that much of the discredit cast upon its application in suitable cases has arisen from the fact that the instrument used was not adapted to fulfil all the purposes for which it was designed. Either it was too heavy and thick; it did not possess the requisite length and curves to seize the head at the superior strait; or it could not be locked without difficulty, •which rendered it useless; and the operator, after a fruitless attempt to apply it, has thrown it by in despair, and condemned the instrument altogether. There can be as little doubt, also, that partiality for the short forceps, which can be used only when the head is at the inferior pelvic strait, has greatly con- tributed to the infrequency with which it has been resorted to by English practitioners. National prejudice has seldom mani- fested Itself more strongly than in the tenacity with which they cling to the short forceps. All the forceps used by British ac- coucheurs, until quite lately, are very much alike, difi:ering only in an endless variety of slight deviations. It is also worthy of remark that the French and German practitioners are nearly unanimous in their preference for the long forceps. In France, as has been well remarked, they all bear a family likeness to the forceps of Levret, possessing in greater or less degree the second curve, which corresponds to the general axis of the pelvis,
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