427 



CHAPTER VI. 



Of Obstetric Operations. 



ARTICLE I. 



Of Turning. 



965. The word turning, is, in tokology, applied to the act of 

 turning the child with the hand, and bringing one of the extremities 

 of its great diameter to the superior strait. There are two kinds 

 of turning; in one the head, and in the other the feet are brought 

 down first. 



Hippocrates has a few words upon the subject of turning, but 

 only of version by the head. Celsus advises that the feet should be 

 drawn down where it is too difficult to get hold of the head, but he 

 dares not perform this manoeuvre except when the child is dead. 

 Aetius and Paul of Egina are the only ones among the ancients who 

 have applied the idea of Celsus to the living fcetus; although it is 

 mentioned in Wolf's Collection, and though Franco and Pare have 

 treated of it as a common practice, we must come down as late as 

 the time of Guillemeau before we can obtain any circumstantial de- 

 tails concerning it. Previously to the time of this last mentioned 

 author, all those practitioners who were either ignorant of, or refused 

 to adopt the operation of turning by the feet, were reduced to the 

 necessity of bringing away the child piece-meal from the womb, 

 after having allowed it to perish, or else to extract it with the crot- 

 chet or some other instrument in all cases where they thought it not 

 possible to bring the head to the strait. Besides, until then there 

 never had been any question about bringing down the feet, except 

 as a remedy for faulty positions, as positions of the body for exam- 

 ple. It is only since Guillemeau's day that it has been recommend- 

 ed to bring down the feet and make a complete version and delivery 

 of the child, in cases attended with some accident, the head being al- 

 ready at the strait. 



