Obstetrics : the science and the art / by Charles D. Meigs.

  • Meigs, Charles D. (Charles Delucena), 1792-1869.
Date:
1863
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Obstetrics : the science and the art / by Charles D. Meigs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    recently been delivered, suffers from inflammation of the womb, she always experiences pain when she draws up the knees, because the overhanging bellies of the psoas muscles, in contracting to flex the thighs, press very painfully upon the inflamed globe of the uterus, which still juts up above the plane of the superior strait, filling up the whole of its transverse diameter. 84. Figure 19 may give some idea of the relation of parts in the recent pelvis. A is the aorta, and B the vena cava; c the internal iliac artery descending into the pelvic excavation; D and E are the external iliac artery and vein; F G the psoas muscles, H the rectum, I the womb, and K the bladder of urine. 85. I wish the Student to reflect that all the pelvic viscera are with- in, and not out of or beyond the pelvis; and I say so in this place to guard him against the very common mistake of supposing that any part of the womb—its fundus—is to be found jutting up above the plane of the superior strait. There are few drawings made in mid- wifery books to illustrate the inner genitalia in situ, that do not ex- hibit the fundus uteri on a level with or even higher than the plane of the strait. Kolrausch's most beautiful and admirable plate, the most perfect that has yet been produced, gives to all the internal organs their absolute right place. I assure the Student that whensoever he shall find that he can feel the fundus uteri by pressing his hand upon the hypogastrium and pushing the teguments downwards and backwards, he may make bold to say that he is touching a womb enlarged by preg- nancy or by some disease. CHAPTEE II. MECHANICAL INFLUENCE OF THE PELVIS—OF THE MECHAN- ISM OF LABOR AS DEPENDENT ON THE RELATIONS OF THE CHILD'S FORM TO THAT OF THE PELVIS. 86. Very little seems to have been anciently known concerning what is now called the mechanism of labor as observable while the head or other parts of the child are passing along the canal of the pelvis. No one can doubt that Mauriceau and Lamotte, who were keen observers, must have often noticed the spiral movements of the advancing head, the shoulder or the breech in cases of labor, for it is impossible that such circumstances should have wholly escaped their notice, or that of many other highly talented practitioners of our art in all ages of the world. Nevertheless, it is very certain that they