484 THE LEVER. 



ing laceration of the perineum, and allowing the vulva to dilate more 

 slowly and regularly. 



ARTICLE III. 

 Of the Lever. 



SECTION 1. 

 Of the Lever in itself considered. 



1085. Herbiniaux, and Denraan, the British Baudelocque, have 

 decidedly maintained that the lever is incomparably superior to the 

 forceps; and notwithstanding that it has not been so highly thought 

 of in France, it has occupied much of the attention of the physicians 

 of our country since the middle of the last century. 



1086. Its inventor is no better known than that of the forceps. 

 Was the idea of it derived from the uncus of Celsus or the curette 

 of the lithotomists? Is it the instrument made use of by the Cham- 

 berlains, as Mulder pretends, or the spoon of Palfyn, or one of the 

 branches of Smellie's forceps, variously modified? Still it is true 

 that Roonhuysen, who made a secret of it, acquired celebrity as an 

 accoucheur, by means of a peculiar instrument, since used under the 

 title of Roonhuysen's lever. This instrument, which, from Roon- 

 huysen passed into the hands of Bruyn, was purchased and made 

 public by De Vischer and Van de Poll in 1753; but, as was the case 

 with regard to the forceps, a great number of very discrepant ac- 

 counts of it appeared in the course of a short time; there was soon 

 a lever by Boom, another of De Bruyn, a third by Titsing, one by 

 Palfyn or Heister, one by Cole, one by Griffith, a lever by Wathen, 

 one by Aitken, &c. There was no less discrepancy upon its mode of 

 acting: according to some it was to be applied to the occiput, potentia 

 agit in os occipitis, was the family secret; according to others it was 

 to be applied to the temples. Titsing directed it to be applied to the 

 mastoid process; and lastly, others thought it should be fixed upon 

 the side of the chin. As to its advantages, if De Bruyn was to be be- 

 lieved, they were immense, no difficulty could withstand it, whether 

 the head were reversed, arrested or locked, the lever triumphed over 

 them all, and by means of this marvellous instrument, the Dutch ac- 

 coucheur pretends to have unlocked eight hundred heads in the course 

 of forty -two years. The French authors have, on the contrary, 



