The principles and practice of obstetric medicine and surgery : in reference to the process of parturition / by Francis H. Ramsbotham.

  • Ramsbotham, Francis H. (Francis Henry), 1800-1868.
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The principles and practice of obstetric medicine and surgery : in reference to the process of parturition / by Francis H. Ramsbotham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    helps to enlarge the outlet, and gives an elegance to the whole organ that is wanting in the pelvis of the stronger sex. All the bones of the male skeleton are firmer and heavier than they are in the female, and more powerfully marked by those irregularities which indicate muscular attachments. The thoracic cavity is comparatively larger, and the acromia are at a greater distance from each other. A line drawn from the head of the humerus, perpendicularly downwards, would fall to the ground altogether clear of the pelvis; but in a well- articulated female skeleton, the same line would rest within the ala of the ilium. It is this difference that gives the broad shoulders to the male, and the swelling hips to the female, and occasions the principal distinction in the outline of the form between the sexes, Plate I. figs. 1 and 2.* * These figures are sketched from Maygrier's work. It might perhaps be thought more desirable in some respects, if the characteristic difference between the male and female out- line had been shown by drawings of the skeletons; but as the contrast by such a mode of illustration would not have been so strongly marked, I have preferred giving an etching of the full form. The elliptical lines will direct the eye to the principal points worthy of attention.