. OF THE PELVIS. 4!r 



120. During labor, we can, if needful, pass the whole hand into the 

 vagina; the thumb and forefinger are then separated, so as to place 

 one on the sacro-vertebral angle, and the other behind the pubis; 

 the hand is withdrawn in that position, and we can, with the assis- 

 tance of a foot-rule, determine, within one or two lines, the dimen- 

 sions of the sacro-pubic diameter, without having recourse to the 

 loop of thread proposed by Storck, the armed hand of Koep, or any 

 other of the thousand inventions for that purpose. Instead of using 

 the thumb and index finger, I have sometimes availed myself of the 

 index and medius fingers passed high up into the vagina; after hav- 

 ing separated them as far as possible, and placed the points of them 

 on each extremity of the diameter, which it is designed to measure, 

 two fingers of the other hand are to be placed between their roots 

 in order to keep them apart, and then they should be withdrawn 

 from the female organs. 



121. With the finger we have the advantage of appreciating all 

 sorts of deformities of the pelvis, whatever be their seat, their nature 

 or degree, the straightness of the sacrum, as well as excess of its 

 curve; also, exostoses and tumors of whatsoever nature, the trans- 

 verse as well as the antero-posterior diameters. By pressing with 

 a certain degree of force against the point of the coccyx it is pos- 

 sible even to learn how much may be gained in the coccy-pubio 

 diameter, by the retreat of the coccyx backwards. Those who have 

 objected that the finger is not always long enough to reach the angle 

 of the sacrum, have forgotten that a pelvis, in which the forefinger 

 cannot reach to the promontory, is thereby proved to be so spa- 

 cious, that the accoucheur need not trouble himself to examine it 

 any farther. Moreover, it cannot be denied that, although it is never 

 very diflicult to discriminate between a deformed pelvis and one that 

 is not so, it is nevertheless impossible, in certain cases, to determine 

 the exact nature and degree of each particular deviation; it is there- 

 fore no more than right to give the praise they deserve to the efTorts 

 lately made by Madame Boivin to obtain more precise results: the 

 instrument which she has invented, and which she has named intro- 

 pelvimeter, although founded on the same principles as Coutouly's, 

 differs from it, nevertheless, very considerably. As its branches are 

 separately introduced, one into the rectum, and the other into the 

 vagina, and as the curve of the rectal branch is very deep, it may be 

 used in the virgin as well as in the pregnant woman, and at any 

 stage of labor; it may even be employed in ascertaining the oblique 

 and transverse diameters, and by altering its vaginal branch it could 

 easily be converted into a calliper. Nevertheless, I doubt we shall 



