On the history and use of the short straight midwifery forceps as a tractor, and of the long double curved forceps as a compressor and lever / by Thomas More Madden.

Date:
[1875?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the history and use of the short straight midwifery forceps as a tractor, and of the long double curved forceps as a compressor and lever / by Thomas More Madden. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    ON THE HISTORY AND USE OF THE SHORT STRAIGHT MIDWIFERY FORCEPS AS A TRACTOR, AND OF THE LONG DOUBLE CURVED FORCEPS AS A COMPRESSOR AND LEVER. By THOMAS MORE MADDEN, M.D., M.R.I.A.; Lately Examiner in Midwifery in the Queen’s University in Ireland; Physician to St. Joseph’s Hospital for Sick Children ; Ex-Assistant Physician to the Dublin Lying-in Hospital; Corresponding Fellow of the Obstetrical Society of Edinburgh and of the Gynaecological Society of Boston, &c. &c. Within the last few years the midwifery forceps has once more com into frequent use, after a long period of obstetric darkness, during which even the most eminent accoucheurs, being ignorant of the value of this nstrument, or incapable of applying it, resorted to craniotomy whenever the natural efforts failed to accomplish delivery in cases of difficult labour. A great advance had been already made in this respect before I first became a student of midwifery, and “ cold steel for the child, followed by mercury for the mother,” was no longer the rule of practice in such cases. Still, even then the aphorism inculcated in the lecture- room, and acted upon at the bed-side, was that urgent necessity alone warranted any instrumental interference with labour, and the cases in which this necessity was held to exist were comparatively few and far between. The forceps was seldom applied without a consultation, and very rarely indeed until the os uteri had been for some time fully dilated. But now nous avons change tout cela—the forceps is used as freely as the catheter, and instrumental delivery promises to become soon the rule, and natural labour almost the exception. This transition from complete neglect to habitual use is merely an additional instance of those strange reactions in opinion and in practice of which the history of our profession presents so many remarkable