420 DYSTOCIA. 



that it could maintain itself under the contractions of the gestative or- 

 gan? Would not those contractions necessarily compel the head or 

 the breech to descend towards the os uteri? Mauriceau, Deventer, 

 Smellie, Roederer, &c., have given drawings representing such po- 

 sitions, it is true; but none of them is said to have been taken from 

 nature, and a mere glance suffices to satisfy us that they are all 

 fancy-pieces. If the ideas of these authors have in our own day been 

 reproduced, with additions, is it not rather in order to be conformable 

 to the notions of the ancients than from direct observation? Could 

 Solayres and Baudelocque be fit judges of a question never precedent- 

 ly agitated, particularly as they had such motives to retain it as it had 

 been laid down, in order to magnify the importance of a classification 

 which in a great measure constituted their reputation and their glory? 



I desire that, here, as well as in the succeeding articles, no one 

 will misconceive of my intentions, and that I may not be charged 

 with want of reverence for so many celebrated names; I merely ex- 

 press my doubts, and do not pronounce judgment; but, were it ne- 

 cessary to combat the opinion and the arguments of those accouch- 

 eurs, whether ancient or modern, who have admitted the existence 

 of transverse positions, by means of authorities not less respectable 

 than they are, I would suggest, without any allusion to my own ex- 

 perience, that out of more than forty thousand cases noticed by 

 Madame Lachapelle, and twenty thousand mentioned by Merriman, 

 not one of these presentations was observed; finally, that M. Du- 

 bois and M. Duges reject them as chimerical or superfluous. 



953. Is it, then, demonstrated that the chdd may present either of 

 its three principal surfaces at the entrance of the pelvis, and that in- 

 clined positions of the side have not been mistaken for positions of 

 the dorsal or abdominal surface? A multitude of cases are found in 

 books, which, if taken according to the letter, would lead to an af- 

 firmative answer to these questions; but, upon analysing them with 

 some degree of care, they are soon found to be accompanied with de- 

 tails not sufficiently circumstantial to serve as incontrovertible proof 

 of what their authors have averred to be the facts. According to 

 Madame Lachapelle, positions of the anterior and posterior regions 

 never do take place, and those of the side are the only ones that we 

 can conceive of, except it be in some abortions; she maintains that 

 positions of the dorsal surface would not fail, under the influence of 

 the uterine contractions, to be soon transformed into positions of the 

 shoulder, should they not result in being reduced to some positions 

 of the head or pelvis; that those of the abdominal surface would re- 

 quire a reversement of the occiput, of the lower extremities and spine, 

 incompatible with the life of the fcetus. For my own part, I think 



