The principles and practice of obstetrics . hich the vaginal examination hasbeen attempted without regard to any rule or principle—the hand,with the lingers separated, carried toward the vagina, one linger,perhaps, finding its way into the meatus urinarius, another press-ing upon the clitoris, while a third would probably be on the outerboundary, if, indeed, it did not penetrate the anus itself, consti-tuting in all truth a fun-damental operation, andcausing the patient to re-buke, in severe language,the operator for his stupid-ity and ignorance! Theindex linger being lubri-cated with oil, or
The principles and practice of obstetrics . hich the vaginal examination hasbeen attempted without regard to any rule or principle—the hand,with the lingers separated, carried toward the vagina, one linger,perhaps, finding its way into the meatus urinarius, another press-ing upon the clitoris, while a third would probably be on the outerboundary, if, indeed, it did not penetrate the anus itself, consti-tuting in all truth a fun-damental operation, andcausing the patient to re-buke, in severe language,the operator for his stupid-ity and ignorance! Theindex linger being lubri-cated with oil, or some mu-cilaginous material, is intro-duced gently into the va-gina, at first from beforebackward and then frombelow upward. A generalsweep of the vagina is tobe made during this exami-nation, to ascertain the con-dition of the excavation,whether its capacity is natu-ral or whether abridged bysome foreign growth; theno. si. radial border of the finger is then placed under thesymphysis pubis, and the apex directed toward the promontory of. THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF OBSTETRICS. 71 the sacrum (Fig. 31). With the index ringer of the other hand,placed on the radial surface of the finger in the vagina justoutside of the symphysis pubis, the finger is withdrawn from thevagina, and a scale applied for the purpose of measuring it; thiswill probably, in case of a natural conformation, give four and ahalf inches—but half an inch is to be deducted for the obliquityof the finger in its course from the symphysis pubis to thesacro-vertebral prominence, which would leave four inches thenormal antero-posterior diameter at the superior strait. Thismode of measurement has been objected to by certain writerson the ground, that, in some cases, the index finger couldnot reach the sacro-vertebral prominence. Well, it seems tome that, admitting the objection to be valid, it demonstratesthe very thing we desire, viz. that there is no contraction inthe antero-posterior or direct diameter. The m
Size: 1347px × 1855px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, bookpubli, booksubjectobstetrics
