Obstetrics: the science and the art.

  • Meigs, Charles D. (Charles Delucena), 1792-1869.
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Obstetrics: the science and the art. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    in tlie middle of tlie figure, wliich indicate tlie respective limits of pubis, iscliium, and ilium in that direction, and he will see that one- fifth of the acetabulum belongs to the pubis ; that two-fifths of it are contributed by the ischium; while the upper and outer two-fifths are formed by the os ilium. By examining these dotted lines, he will learn what parts of the os innominatum belong to each of its three constituent members. In fact, the os innominatum, as has been already seen, was originally three separate bones, which at or about the period of puberty became consolidated by bony anchylosis, or union, into one solid os coxale, hip-bone, or side-bone. 43. If an os innominatum be taken from a subject under twelve or fourteen years of age, and macerated or boiled in water, it readily separates into three pieces; and the separation takes place because the pieces, in a tender age, are not consolidated at these dotted lines or become one firm bone, a union that cannot become complete until the body has acquired such a development as to fit it to undergo the fatigue of gestation, which rarely occurs'until the fifteenth year. A bone, taken from the os innominatum of a subject under twelve years old, serves to show the Student the propriety of preserving for the adult skeleton the names of the three separate pieces ; for lie will learn thereafter that it is very convenient to refer to them in many cases where we desire to direct the attention accurately to a certain point of the pelvis, of which we can then speak, as its ischial, pubic, or iliac portion. 44. In respect to the acetabular region, or as it is for shortness called the acetabulum, I wish the Student to observe that it is one of the cardinal points in the circumference of the pelvis, and it is highly requisite that he should know that the left acetabulum is agreed upon by the profession to be considered as the cardinal point on the female pelvis. There are various cardinal points also upon the foetus, as, for example, the vertex or point of the head, &c. Now, when the vertex, in the head presentation, is found to be at the left acetabulum, it is said to be in the first position; and if it is at the right acetabulum, it is in the second position, and so on; from which it appears that positions are classed numerically, and are, in fact, expressed as numerical relations of some cardinal point upon the child to the cardinal point of the pelvis. Thus, if, in a consul- tation upon the case, the question should be asked, what is the position? The answer might be, it is the first, or the fifth, or the third, and so forth, which would express the numerical position or relation of the vertex to the left acetabulum. 45. The whole pelvis is now seen to consist of a sacrum and coccyx,