On an alteration in the handle of the forceps, &c., by H. Davies ... Obstetrical researches, by Maurice Onslow, M.D., No. 5.

  • Granville, A. B. (Augustus Bozzi), 1783-1872.
Date:
[1820]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On an alteration in the handle of the forceps, &c., by H. Davies ... Obstetrical researches, by Maurice Onslow, M.D., No. 5. 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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    Art. III. On an Alteration in the Handle of the Forceps, &c. By H. Davies, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, Lecturer on Midwifery and on the Diseases ot Women and Children. is4-- fa- rh -2) , *c The alteration to which Mr. Davies has undertaken to givo publicity, has been known for some years back to every practi- tioner in midwifery who has had any occasion to enter an instrument maker’s shop; and is not, therefore, as he presumes, a matter of secrecy to many. It consists in adding a clumsy, conical pin, made of brass, to one handle of the forceps, which is made to enter a corresponding depression, or excavation, in the opposite handle. Mr. Clarke is the author of this innova- tion in, or addition to, his short forceps; but we may tell Mr. Davies, who, of course, as a younger practitioner in midwifery, cannot be offended at the remark,—that, in stating to his readers, or to his pupils, for aught we know, that by this con- trivance, the necessity for tying the handles with a napkin is done away with, he is not correct. The contrivance will, we know, prevent the “ up and down” motion of the handles, which is, after all, a very trilling inconvenience, and one that seldom occurs, where the forceps are properly applied,—but it will not, and does not, by any means impede, or prevent, the sepa- ration of the haudles from each other. A friend of ours, who has applied the forceps at least twenty times in the course of last year, on an average number of eleven hundred lying-in women, belonging to a public charity, assures us, that neither ligature nor napkin—and much less a pin, is necessary for the dexterous handling of that instrument. As to the advantages of the pin and groove, enumerated by Mr. Davies, we have no time to say much of them. We shall only quote the second, that the I readers may judge of the remainder. “ That, while resting at intervals from extracting where there are no pains, or in the intervals of the pains where they still occur, a full ex- pansion of jthe child’s bead may thus be allowed ; and the ill effects which might result from continued compression on it will be avoided.” We ask Mr. Davies, what possible connection can there be between the pin,—which, if it be of use at all, it is in keeping the two handles in close contact—and “ the allowing of a full expansion of the child’s head” during the relaxation of pains and exertion! Mr. Davies is also of opinion, that another improvement might be made in the forceps, by rendering its curvature from the handle to the bow very gradual. The want of this other ! improvement in a common pair of forceps, which Mr. Davies l was obliged to use on an emergency, in the case of a robust lady, on Sunday the 19th of November, put him in a sad fright, “ for the safety of her perinaeum, which was kindly and skil- fully preserved by Mr. Woolly, of Brompton. We may remark upon this, that Mr. Davies will not find many patients, who, under similar circumstances, will submit to the additional assistance ot another pair of hands, besides the operator’s, by • Ivom alone every necessary precaution should be taken to prevent mischief.