290 NATURAL EUTOCIA. 



natural. The moderns having rejected this doctrine depends upon 

 their having misconceived the acceptation of the terms: the word 

 natural is admitted by them to be synonymous with spontaneous, 

 and consequently that labor where tlie pelvic extremity presents 

 ought to belong to the class of natural labors. 



722. There is no doubt that tlie principles taught by the father 

 of medicine have been the cause of important errors in practice, by 

 leading practitioners to deliver by the head when it did not origi- 

 nally present, and in denying the possibility of a labor terminating 

 alone, where the feet present; but, although they abandoned these 

 ideas, have not the authors of the last century replaced them by 

 others equally incorrect? Is it right, with Dionis, and A. Petit, to 

 say that the fostus may be extracted with as much or more ease by 

 drawing it away by the feet, than if it descends with the head fore- 

 most; and that it is almost a matter of indifference as to the result, 

 whether the cephalic or pelvic extremity presents? I do not think 

 so, and I dare to say that such a way of thinking would be scarcely- 

 less dangerous in practice than the ancient doctrine. There is no 

 position of the child in which the labor has not sometimes termi- 

 nated alone; and yet it has entered into no one's head to call a shoul- 

 der presentation, for example, a natural one. If a dystocia takes 

 place, it is not because the chiW is in this or that position, but be- 

 cause the interference of art becomes indispensably necessary; a la- 

 bor may be fortunate, and simple, or spontaneous, although the foetus 

 presents with its pelvic extremity; but strictly speaking, the posi- 

 tions of the head are alone natural or normal. 



723. Delivery by the encephalic extremity contains two very dis- 

 tinct genera: in the first the summit of the head presents; while in 

 the second, the face or some other part of the head offers at the 

 straits. 



§1. Presentation of the Tertex. 



1664 times in 1800 cases (Merriman); 1792 times in 1897 cases 

 (Bland); 19,780 in 20,357 cases (iMadame Boivin); 14,677 times 

 in 15,652 cases (Madame Lachapelle); 20,098 times in 22,243 (Id.); 

 1210 in 1296 cases (Ncegele); 61 in 67 (Lovati); 392 in 400 (Hos- 

 pital of the Faculty). 



724. The presentation of the vertex is incomparably more fre- 

 quent, as may be seen above, than all the others. Is any thing fur- 

 ther wanting to prove that it is the only natural one, that which the 

 organism always tends to produce, when nothing arises to interfere 

 with the regular accomplishment of the grand act of reproduction? 

 In this presentation the posterior fontanel tends to place itself in the 



