Aphorisms on the application and use of the forceps and vectis, on preternatural labours, on labours attended with hemorrhage, and with convulsions / by Thomas Denman.

  • Denman, Thomas, 1733-1815.
Date:
1817
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Aphorisms on the application and use of the forceps and vectis, on preternatural labours, on labours attended with hemorrhage, and with convulsions / by Thomas Denman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

    18/88 (page 14)
    I 14 forceps, and explained the necessity of using them to the patient and her friends, she is to be placed .in the usual position on her left side, near to the edge of the bed; and the instruments, warmed in water, and smeared with some unc- tuous application, are to be laid conveniently by you. Note. Women, impelled by their fears and their sufferings in difficult labours, will very fre- quently implore you to deliver them with instru- ments long before you will be convinced of the necessity of using them. In many cases I have found it expedient and encouraging to them to fix upon some distant time when they should be de- livered, if the child were not before born ; six, or eight, or twelve hours, for instance. In some cases of great apprehension I have also shewn them, upon one of my knees, ajl that I intended to do with the forceps. The following rules are given on the pre- sumption, that the head of the child presents with the face inclined, or verging towards the hollow of the sacrum, and that the common short forceps are intended to be used; but if any other kind of forceps should be preferred, the rules must be adapted to the instrument.