THE EMJ'Loy.VEXT OF FOIiCE IX DYSToKIJ. .'31 



SECTION IV.— COMPARISON BKTWEKN MANUAL AND MKC'IIANICAL 



FORCE. 



The employment of machines which multiply force for the artiticiul 

 extraction of the foetus, can be traced to a somewhat distant period ; 

 and the use of the windlass, the wheel, and the cart by rude empirics is 

 of ancient date. 



Resorted to by ignorant people destitute of that knowledge which 

 alone can ensure safety and success, these appliances must have been 

 productive of great injury and loss. It was probably from witnessing 

 these results that the early French veterinarians were almost unanimous 

 in their condemnation of their use, and designated them as " cruel " 

 and " murderous." " It is cruel," says Fromage de Feugre, " to tie a 

 cord to a Calf, and to pull at it by the windlass or capstan, or by horses 

 attached to it. It is umch better, the Cow being tied by its liorns, to 

 make men pull at the cord, so that force may be emploj-ed with more 

 precaution and management." And Hurtrel d'Arboval remarks: " There 

 are people who would go so far as to pull at the cord whicli is attached 

 to the Foal or the Calf by the windlass, the capstan, or pulleys ; this 

 procedure is not only cruel, but its violence usually kills the fu.'tus, and 

 often causes lacerations, serious injury, and displacement of the uterus." 

 Other writers have written in equally strong terms against the use of 

 traction machines, and in favour of manual force — which, they argue, is 

 an intelligent force that may be graduated at will, and its direction 

 modified according to circumstances, so as always to act in the most 

 favourable way — i.e., in the axis of the pelvis. 



Nevertheless, since 1S38, when Lecoq spoke in favour of mechanical 

 appliances, many of the most experienced practitioners have expressed 

 themselves in their favour. " I propose the pulley," says Lecoq, 

 " because it affords much more gentle and steady traction than that 

 obtained by strength of arm. . . . This opinion is shared by the majority 

 of the veterinary surgeons in our part of the world." " The employ- 

 ment of the pulley," writes Darreau in l8o2, " gives a more regular 

 and sustained traction than that of assistants, no matter how vigor- 

 ous and intelligent these may be ; in turning it slowly, we obtain a 

 gradual and continuous traction ; the shoulders and the body of the 

 f(jtus are elongated, the sides are flattened by the pressure, and delivery 

 is effected in the majority of cases without an accident. . . . By this pro- 

 cedure, we succeed in eight cases out of ten." Ayrault writes ■} "I 

 have decided to employ a means which I have often very severely 

 qualified when in the hands of empirics, and which can be only barbar- 

 ous and brutal by reason of the ignorance of those who apply it : I 

 spt>ak of the windlass, and wheel and axle. ... It is now amply demon- 

 strated to me that this obstetrical means, so little enticing at first sight, 

 is the first among all the means for producing traction which the veter- 

 inary surgeon has at his disposal — provided always that he watches its 

 operation with much attention ... so that no part of the foetus wedges 

 against the sides of the pelvis ; for the windlass does not know of any 

 obstacle which it cannot overcome." And Gan-eau,- commenting on 

 Baron's obstetric machine just described, reports, " From what lias 

 been said, it results from an examination of every part of this apparatus 

 that it is simple, and works well and easily ; that its power is at least 



' Rfcuf'd (h M^decine VeUriiuiire, 1857. 



- Report a la Socieie CentraU de Afidfcine Veltrinaire, 1858. 



