On axis-traction forceps / by Alexander Russell Simpson.

Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On axis-traction forceps / by Alexander Russell Simpson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    pressure on the head is about equal to half the amount of force exerted in traction. 3. Rotation.-—During the progress of the head effected under the simple traction, the head tends to undergo the usual movement of rotation if the operator is simply careful not to liinder it. Cases may arise where the rotation may be promoted by a judicious movement with the forceps. 4. Leverage.—In common with many other practitioners, in employing the ordinary forceps I have found it handier, when the head was not descending under straight forward traction, to secure its advance by an alternate lateral lever movement. A forceps that will give us the power of j)erfect traction renders less neces- sary such pendulum action. 5. Dynamic Action. — It has often enough been observed in lingering cases, where the parturient powers had become almost inert, that after the head began to be dislodged in the grasp of the forceps the parturient energy revived. This has led some to attribute to the forceps what they have called a dynamic action, which Kilian at one time fancied might be increased by having the blades made of different metals, so as to add a galvanic to the sup- posed dynamic action. III. Construction of Forceps. In choosing an instrument which will fulfil all the indications, because possessing all the powers, required in an effective pair of forceps in the various emergencies of practice, the obstetrician should be careful to select a double curved forceps that can grasp the head either at the floor of the pelvis, in the brim, or above the brim. It is important to accustom the mind and hands to the relation and working of an instrument that will be available for every case. The head, even when grasped at the floor of the pelvis, is best carried alons; the curve of the canal with a curved instrument. With such an instrument the Fellows of this Society are all very familiar; for since Sir James Simpson in 1848 laid his forceps before it, most of us have had.abundant opportunity of testing their efficacy, and have come to the conclusion, that what ought in any case to be effected by means of forceps can be effected by these. They are essentially a pair of long forceps^ intended and adapted for application either above, at, or below the brim, and I find it difficult to comprehend how Dr Barnes can have faUeu into the error of misrepresenting them as if they were only to be used in low forceps operations.^ Some of the best points in their construc- ' Selected Obstdrical and Gynecological Works, by Sir J. Simpson, vol. i. p. 37, edited by Dr Wiitt Black. We may iis well take the opportunity of demurring to Dr Barnes' dogma enunciated on the same occasion in the Lomlou Obstetrical Society (Trans. L. 0. S. for 1879), p. 243, that obstetric experience is a matter of population, iu tlio sense, at least, that only iu large centres of population are we to look for