Burton ('Dr. Slop') : his forceps and his foes / by Alban Doran.

  • Doran, Alban H. G. (Alban Henry Griffiths), 1849-1927.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Burton ('Dr. Slop') : his forceps and his foes / by Alban Doran. 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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    Burton (“Dr. Slop”) : His Forceps and His Foes. By Alban Doran, F.R.C.S. Part I. Introduction. “ Of all men in tlie world, Dr. Slop was the fittest for my father’s purpose;—for though ms newly invented forceps was the armour he had proved, and what he maintained to he the safest instrument of deliverance,—yet it seems he had scattered a word or two in his hook, in favour of the very thing which ran in my father’s fancy though not with a view to the soul’s good, in extracting by the feet, as was my father’s system,—hut for reasons merely obstetrical.” Tristram Shandy, Bk. II, Chap. xix. This contribution is based on the above words, “ newly invented forceps,” for the name of Dr. Slop, in other words Dr. Burton, has always been associated with his forceps. We shall see presently that in practice he made use of another instrument, possibly also of his own contriving. Tristram Shandy’s father, that is to say, Laurence Sterne, studied current works on Obstetrics, as will pre- sently be explained. He was more correct than Gloucester, that is to say, Shakespeare : — “ For I have often heard my mother say, I came into the world with my legs forward', Had I had not reason, think ye, to make haste, And seek their ruin that usurp’d our right?” 3 Hen. YI, v. 6. Sterne makes no allusion to spontaneous footling delivery, though Dr. Slop speaks of breech presentation elseAvhere.1 In the sentence quoted above he refers to podalic version. His allusion to “ extract- ing by the feet ” was made not long after the days when De la Motte practised version freely and successfully.2 Gloucester, on the other 1. Tristram Shandy, Bk. Ill, Chap. xvii. 2. “ Podalic version was his Alpha and Omega, and in that operation he certainly attained a skill which has perhaps never been reached by anyone before or after him.” Ingerslev, loc. cit., p. 32. Tristram was supposed to have been born in 1718, when De la Motte was flourishing, but long before Burton invented his forceps.