450 DYSTOCIA. 



to transpose to the right hand the rules already laid down for the 

 government of the left — it is clear, in point of fact, that all the manosu- 

 vres of the head are naturally reduced to a single one, and that by 

 multiplying them, we naturally fall into fastidious repetitions, evi- 

 dently of no use, and fit for nothing but to overload the memory of 

 the student. 



§. II. Of Turning by the Feet in Presenta- 

 tions of the Trunk. 



1012. Although it may not be certain that no case has been seen, 

 in a well formed pelvis, where the trunk of the foetus was so situated 

 that the head was turned directly backwards; although it is difficult 

 to conceive of such a phenomenon, an error was committed by those 

 who maintain that the same holds good of the anterior part of the 

 pelvic circle. The ossa pubis being lower than the sacro-vertebral 

 angle, and the soft parietes of the abdomen being very distensible, 

 the posterior concavity of the symphysis does not, like the projection 

 of the spine, repel the head towards the sides of the median line, 

 and admit of its fixing itself directly in front. 



1013. Besides, this last mentioned position has been many times 

 met with. To the proofs already in possession of the profession on 

 this subject, I might add several more; but I shall content myself 

 ■with citing only one. A woman, in her fourth pregnancy, and 

 whose former labors had exhibited nothing peculiar, continued seve- 

 ral days in labor at my amphitheatre; she was carefully attended 

 to by the students, and all of them had an opportunity of satisfying 

 themselves that the right shoulder was at the orifice, while through 

 the remarkably thin parietes of the abdomen the head could be felt 

 almost naked, above and in front of the symphysis pubis. How- 

 ever, as these positions are rare, and do not at all alter the funda- 

 mental rules of the manoeuvre, I shall refer all the presentations of 

 the trunk, as I have done those of the head, to two principal ones: 

 namely, a left-lateral one, comprising the first and fourth of MM. 

 Maygrier, Capuron, Duges, and Madame Lachapelle; and a right late- 

 ral one, to which the second and third of the same authors must 

 be reduced. 



In fact, what does it import to the hand with which we operate, 

 whether, in presentations of the side for example, the head is a little 

 nearer or a little further off" from the anterior or posterior median 

 line of the pelvis? If we wish to take hold of the posterior surface 

 of the child's legs, we shall still be obliged to deliver in the first 

 position of the feet if we use the right; and in the second if we use 

 the left hand; as we always have to bring the child as near as pos- 



