On the comparative use of ergot and the forceps, in labor : read by appointment before the Medical Society of the State of New York / by B. Fordyce Barker.

  • Barker, Fordyce, 1819-1891.
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the comparative use of ergot and the forceps, in labor : read by appointment before the Medical Society of the State of New York / by B. Fordyce Barker. 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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    V ^ / / y OK THE COMPARATIVE USE OF IN L A B O E. BY B. FORDYCE BARKER, M.D., I understand the duty assigned me by the Society to be, to contrast the indications for the use of one of these efficient agents in parturition, in preference to the other. 1 shall endeavor to define the powers of each, to point out the conditions where each may be made available in assisting labor, and also the indications which forbid a resort to either of these resources. I shall aim to bring the subject up to the present state of science, as derived from the highest obstetrical authorities, based on the most extensive clinical observation, and the soundest and most philosophical reasoning. But in order that I may not occupy^ too much of the time of the Society, I shall content myself with a condensed statement of the present obstetrical doctrines and practice. To discuss the subject in full, to give the various arguments for and against each principle enunciated, to do full justice by quotations and references, to each contributor to obstetrical science, would extend this paper beyond those reasonable limits, proper for a report to be • read before a Society at its annual session. I shall first speak of the action of ergot, and its use and abuse in labor. There is a peculiar fitness in the effort on the part of this Society, to accurately determine the indications and coutra-indicatioua