OF THE PELVIS. 43 



many, therefore, where this doctrine has numerous partisans, there 

 appeared some years since a work in which Dr. Weber endeavored 

 to demonstrate that the head and the pelvis are subject to the same 

 laws of evolution; that the good or bad conformation of one of these 

 parts always corresponds exactly with a similar state of the other; 

 that the narrowness and depth of the male pelvis, for example, are 

 in exact accordance with the form of the male head, whose vertical 

 and antero-posterior diameters, in general, exceed the transversal, 

 while the opposite condition is observable in the female, &c. 



109. Consequendy, M. Weber desires that the inspection of the 

 head should give us an exact idea of the condition of the pelvis. His 

 method is very simple: the occipito-frontal, bi-parietal, and fronto- 

 mastoid diameters of the head, exactly represent the sacro-pubic, 

 bis-iliac and oblique diameters of the pelvis. 



The superior strait is proportioned to the cranium, and the face 

 is proportioned to the inferior strait. 



Although Mr. Weber cites cases in support of his system, I am 

 obliged, nevertheless, to say that I have seen the very best shaped 

 pelvis coincide with the most deformed crania, and vice versa; 

 however, it has appeared to me as it did to Madame Lachapelle, 

 that the more the upper part of the face projects, the larger is the 

 pelvis. 



110. These preliminary researches being completed, we pass on 

 to the examination of the pelvis itself, with all possible decency and 

 circumspection. If the woman's gait is easy, free and unconstrained; 

 if the hips are on the same level, wider than the base of the thorax, 

 and well rounded, the great trochanters properly separated from 

 each other; if she is not hollow backed; if the sacrum has neither too 

 much nor too little convexity; if the symphysis of the pubis is nei- 

 ther sunk in nor protuberant, nor too long, there will be some good 

 reason for reporting a good conformation; by placing the fingers be- 

 tween the labia and the root of the thighs we can ascertain whether 

 or not the pubic arch is narrow, whether it forms a sufficiently large 

 arch of a circle, and whether the ischia are too near each other. 



111. It is not necessary, for the purpose of correctly appreciating 

 all these circumstances, to uncover the woman, or to make her lie 

 down; if there be any fear of alarming her modesty, the examina- 

 tion may be made through her chemise. When all the characters 

 of a good conformation are met with, it is common to dispense with 

 any farther examination; but if some of those characters be want- 

 ing, we should endeavor to determine the kind of deformity that 

 does exist: a hollow back, with a very decided saliency of the pubis, 

 indicates an extreme degree of inclination, and a trilobated form of 



