Obstetrics : the science and the art / by Charles D. Meigs.

  • Meigs, Charles D. (Charles Delucena), 1792-1869.
Date:
1852, ©1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Obstetrics : the science and the art / by Charles D. Meigs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Lamar Soutter Library, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

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    Fig. 22. c. But the lines p c, q c, r c, s c, and t c, also represent antero- posterior diameters of the pelvis, or planes of the pelvis, and each one of those planes has an axis, which is a line perpendicular to the centre of the said plane, so that the axis of the pelvis con- sists of the axes of the succes- sive planes passed through in descending from the top to the bottom of the excavation. The line e f and the line g k re- spectively represent the axis of the superior and that of the in- ferior strait. Carus's Curve.—A far pre- '^ %. ferable method of describing and understanding the axis of the pelvis is that proposed by Dr. Carl. Gustav. Cams, Prof, of Midwifery in the Medico-Chir. Acad, of Dres- den. His views are stated in his Lehrbuch der G-ynsehologie, etc., Part I. p. 33, § 44. Professor Cams directs that one leg of a pair of compasses should be set in the middle of the posterior edge of the symphysis pubis of a bisected pelvis, as in the figure, which I have copied from his plate— the other leg of the compass Fig. 23. being opened two and a quarter inches—I propose two inches only, which is half the antero-posterior diameter of the pelvis. A circle may now be drawn downwards, commencing at the plane of the superior strait, and continued through g fy g e^ and g a to the point of departure. This is Carus's circle, a segment of which represents, within the excava- tion, the axis of the pelvis. This curve of Carus is the bent axis of the pelvis, and it is an imaginary curved line, in coincidence with which, the centre of the foetal encepha- lon moves as it passes from the upper pelvis through the excavation, the inferior strait, and the produced genital aperture, in the act of being