Obstetrics: the science and the art.

  • Meigs, Charles D. (Charles Delucena), 1792-1869.
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Obstetrics: the science and the art. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    Fig. 4. This narrow passage, from the greater down into the lesser basin, is called the superior strait of the pelvis ; all that is above it being upper basin, and all that is below it being lower pelvis, lower basin,- pelvic canal, excavation, cavity or t r u e p e 1 v i s; for by so many different names it is known in the profession. Hence, let the student learn what the superior strait is—its form, and its dimensions; let him well and truly learn the shape and size of the true pelvis, and he will find that while it has an inlet or abdominal or superior strait, it also has an outlet, inferior or perineal strait — the former at the beginning, and the latter at the end of the pelvic canal—all of which requires his care- ful study. 9. These two straits of the pelvis differ from each other very much in shape and direction, as may be discovered by inspection of the Figs. 4 and 6, which represent the superior and inferior straits of the pelvis. In Fig. 4, one is looking downwards into the pelvis, and in Fig. 5 upwards through its inferior strait. In Fig. 4, the distance from promontory to pubis ought to be at least 4 inches from a to h. The distance across the opening from e to /, should be 4|- inches; and the two -^^S ^ oblique diameters, c g, c g, should be five inches each. In Fig. 5, however, the long- est line is that from front to rear, a 6, and not the trans- verse c d, ef, or oblique ones, so that the longest diameters of the two straits do not coincide, which renders it necessary for the child to make a spiral turn or revo- lution as it descends from above, to be born—a turn that is techni- cally called rotation of the fcetus. I shall, in another page, speak of the lower strait, as consisting of a double plane.