On combined external and internal version / by J. Braxton Hicks.

  • Hicks, J. Braxton (John Braxton)
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On combined external and internal version / by J. Braxton Hicks. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

    18/88
    fail us when we most stand in need of it, namely, in actual labour ; for few medical men have the opportunity, in private or outdoor practice, of carefully examining the condition of the presentation before labour has commenced ; and even did they possess every facility it would be very imprac- ticable, and I may say to a certain extent unnecessary; for it is evident to any one who has taken the trouble to examine the position of the child before birth, that it is frequently altering its position in utero, more commonly oscillating between the transverse and cephalic; and that it is not till the early pains set in that its presentation is finally fixed. This whole external plan appears to have prevailed abroad to the present day, but our own countrymen had made some progress in the mode of partial turning in transverse pre- sentations. I am not aware of any author who describes it before Dr. Robert Lee in his ' Clinical Midwifery/ 1st edition. I am, however, told by a pupil of his that the plan was practised by the late Dr. Collins of Dublin ; however, no mention is made of the plan in his ' Practical Treatise/ published in 1836. Therefore it is to Dr. Lee that we must attribute the first mention of the following plan : When the os was so small as only to allow the introduction of one or two fingers, these were employed to push the head to one side, and then those parts which successively presented also onward in the direction of its head ; thus, ultimately, the feet were made to present or brought within reach of the fingers, and so secured. Dr. Lee also pointed out another fact which seems to have been overlooked, namely, that when the child was placed transversely, its knee was within a finger's length of the os uteri, and thus in some transverse presentations it is not very difficult to hook down the knee. However, as had