The induction of premature labour / Clement Godson.

  • Godson, Clement, 1845-1913.
Date:
[1875]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The induction of premature labour / Clement Godson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    [Reprinted from St Bartholomew’s Hospital Reports, Vol. XL] /// # sz..^ . THE INDUCTION OF PEEMATUEE LABOUE. CLEMENT GODSON, M.D. Read before the Abernethian Society, February 25, 1875. The fact that women had given birth to several dead children after severe parturition, perhaps only completed by embryotomy, and that when subsequently pregnant, labour had set in prema¬ turely, resulting in the birth of a living child, suggested. the idea of anticipating labour by artificially inducing it at a period when the child, though viable, would not be too large to pass through the contracted pelvis. It is a matter of congratulation to us that the introduction of so important a system should have emanated from our own country, and the highest tribute of praise is certainly due to those English practitioners who upheld it, and succeeded in bringing it into general practice against such violent opposition; for no one can deny that it is one of the most important improvements in the practice of midwifery. Denman tells us that ‘ about the year 1756 there was a consultation of the most eminent men at that time in London to consider the moral rectitude of, and advantages which might be expected from, this practice.’ It received their general approval, and it was decided to adopt it in future. The first case in which it was considered necessary was under¬ taken, with success, by Dr Macaulay, Physician to the British Lying-in Hospital in Brownlow Street, in 1756. Very soon after¬ wards it was performed by Dr C. Kelly. In Prance, when it was first suggested, in 1779, its introduction met with the strongest opposition from M. Bandelocque and his followers. The doctors of the Sorbonne declared it a violation of the laws of the Church. Gardien, Carpuron, and Madame La Chapelle firmly resisted it.