The Dublin practice of midwifery / By Henry Maunsell.

  • Henry Maunsell
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Dublin practice of midwifery / By Henry Maunsell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    efficiency and inapplicability being fully recognised by British accoucheurs. We can, however, generally obtain useful inform-* ation by the employment of the fingers alone, and a few remarks on the mode of using them will be necessary. By passing the index finger into the vagina, and carrying it upwards and backwards, we can in many cases touch the promontory of the sacrum, and if we then mark the part of the finger or edge of the hand in contact with the arch of the pubis, we can easily, by making a trifling deduction for the thickness of the symphysis and the obliquity of the finger’s direction, estimate the length of the conjugate diameter. But sometimes, while this diameter is of sufficient extent, considerable con- traction may exist on one or both sides of it. In such a case, a sharp angle must be formed at the back of the symphysis, and on this point we can satisfy ourselves by introducing two or three fingers into the vagina, and placing them in contact with the part; if they lie evenly, side by side, there can be no very acute angle, and consequently no re- markable diminution of capacity on either side of the conjugate diameter. By using the fingers, we are also enabled to discover any irregular ridges of bone, or tumours, that may have the effect of diminishing the capacity of the passage.
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