90 



OBSTETRICS. 



When the operation of turning is entirely impossible, it may be- 

 come necessary to deliver the mother either by exvisceration, or 

 decapitation. 



THE FORCEPS. 



It would be manifestly out of place, in a work of this kind, to 

 enter into a detailed history of the forceps. Suffice it to say, that 

 although hinted at by the ancients, we find no record of their dis- 

 covery or application, till the beginning of the seventeenth century, 

 when Dr. Hugh Chamberlayne published a translation of Mauriceau, 

 in the preface of which he declares that his father, brother, and him- 

 self, " have by God's blessing and our industry, attained to, and long 

 practised, a way to deliver women without any prejudice to them or 

 their infants." " By this manual operation, a labour may be de- 

 spatched (in the least difficulty), with fewer pains, and sooner, to the 

 great advantage, and without danger, both of woman and child." 



The merit of the discovery, therefore, seems to rest with Dr. Paul 

 Chamberlayne, by whom and his sons it was kept a profound secret, 

 till about the year 1715, when it was made public. Since that time, 

 the instrument has undergone various modifications, always, how- 

 ever, retaining the general form originally given to it. The English 

 generally prefer the short forceps, the French and Germans the long. 

 In. this country, the long forceps are most generally used. 



The forceps are intended for the extraction of the child's head, 

 and nofJiing else. They possess the twofold power of, 1st, grasping 

 and slightly compressing the child's head ; 2d, that of acting as a 

 lever of the first kind, and as an extractor. They are to be applied 

 to no other part of the child's body than the head, and are not de- 

 signed to be applied in cases of premature delivery, or where the 

 head is larger than natural from abnormal growth. 



This instrument consists of two branches or pieces, one intended 

 to be used by the right hand, and the other by the left. The first is 

 called the right hand blade; the second, the left hand blade, or 

 branch. Each branch consists of three parts, viz. : the blade, or 

 clam, the lock, and the handle; in some instruments, the handle ter- 

 minates in a blunt hook. The clam or blade, ought, if possible, to 

 be applied to the side of the child's head, and not to the face or ver- 

 tex, and should extend from the vertex to the chin. It is provided 

 with an open space called the fenestra, which not only renders the 

 instrument lighter, but enables it to be more accurately applied to 

 the sides of the head. The lock consists either in a pivot in one 

 branch, which is called the male blade, and a notch in the other, 

 called thence the female blade, which is the German lock ; or a 

 notch in the upper surface of the left, and in the lower surface of 

 the right branch, which is the English lock. 



The original forceps, (and at this day, many of the English 



