320 UNNATURAL EUTOCIA. 



of the first and second, she admits two others, in which the back 

 looks directly towards the right, or towards the left side of the 

 pelvis. 



One thing seems to me to be proved by this discrepancy: it is, 

 that we might, strictly speaking, establish, as M. Flamant has done, 

 eight positions of the breech. But, on the subject of the pelvic 

 extremity, I shall repeat what I said in relation to the cephalic ex- 

 tremity: disagreement has arisen on the subject, because, instead of 

 seeking every possible number and kind, we ought to endeavor to 

 ascertain only such as.it might be useful to know. 



774. Admitting that it were not perfectly correct to say, with 

 Mauriceau, Dionis, De la Motte, and Levret, that the loins are, in 

 breech cases, most generally turned backwards, MM. Capuron, 

 Maygrier, Duges, &c., would not be less in the wrong to assert that 

 they as well as the sacro-anterior positions are purely hypothetical: 

 Asdrubali, who has noticed them, partakes the opinion of Mauriceau, 

 and of Smellie; and the tables published by Madame Lachapelle 

 show that, out of 1390 cases wherein the pelvic extremity pre- 

 sented, there were thirteen anterior, and twenty-six posterior ones. 



775. Thus the direct positions, either anterior or posterior, are 

 possible, as well as the diagonal ones, and the breech may present 

 in as many ways as the head. Like those of the head, too, these 

 positions may be reduced to two principal ones: the one sacro-an- 

 terior, and the other sacro-posterior. This is the way the ancients 

 understood them, and if Baudelocque could be satisfied with one 

 position for the posterior semi-circle of the pelvis, I see not why 

 the three positions of its anterior semi-circle should deserve a more 

 special description. In tlie first, second, and third positions of that 

 author, whether the hips engage just transversely or somewhat ob- 

 liquely, it always happens that one of them looks to the left and the 

 other to the right, exactly as in the three posterior varieties. In 

 the first case the occiput always ends by placing itself behind the 

 pubis; in the second it proceeds to lodge on the fore part of the 

 sacrum, as is observed to happen in the corresponding positions of 

 the vertex. The anterior position differs essentially from the pos- 

 terior one; but the two last being admitted as possible, it is quite 

 useless, as to practice, to establish others, except as shades of them. 

 Notwithstanding, out of respect for received opinions, I shall not fail 

 to point out the particular mechanism of each one of these shades, 

 and instead of uniting all the positions of the pelvic extremity in one 

 single genus, I shall for the same reason continue to examine sepa- 

 rately those of the feet, the knees and breech. 



