Facets

1554

#463

Ein schön lustig Trostbüchle von den Empfengknussen und Geburten der Menschen…

An improved version of Rösslin’s Swangern frawen. This contains the first true anatomical pictures in an obstetrics book. Rueff described smooth-edged forceps for delivery of a live baby, preceding Chamberlen, and a t…

1668

#6147

Des maladies des femmes grosses et accouchées.

The outstanding textbook of the time. Mauriceau, leading obstetrician of his day, introduced the practice of delivering his patients in bed instead of in the obstetrical chair. It was to Mauriceau that Hugh Chamberlen…

1733

#6156.2

An essay on the improvement of midwifery.

Gives the first published account of the forceps, kept secret by the Chamberlen family for generations. Chapman was the second person in England to teach midwifery publicly. The first edition of his book was not illus…

1734

#6156.3

Cases in midwifry. Revised by Edward Hody.

Giffard was one of the first, after the Chamberlens, to use the forceps. His book contains, under case 14, the earliest published record of the use of the hitherto secret Chamberlen forceps, in 1726, together with ill…

1747

#6152

Observations sur les causes et les accidens de plusieurs accouchemens laborieux.

Levret, who improved the obstetric forceps, was a famous teacher in Paris.

1752

#6154

A treatise on the theory and practice of midwifery.

Smellie contributed more to the fundamentals of obstetrics than virtually any individual. In his Treatise he described more accurately than any previous writer the mechanism of parturition, stressing the importance of…

1753

#6153

L’art des accouchemens.

Besides introducing a curved forceps (see No. 6152) Levret invented several other obstetric instruments and made fundamental observations on pelvic anomalies. His book covered the whole field of obstetrics and remaine…

1759

#6848

Abregé de l'art des accouchements, dans lequel on donne les préceptes nécessaires pour le mettre heureusement en pratique, et auquel on a joint plusieurs observations intéressantes sur des cas singuliers.

After ten years as a midwife in Paris, Madame du Coudray was hired by King Louis XV to travel across France to better train rural midwives.There were political motivations for this; Louis wanted to boost a “declining”…

1786

#11534

The first American edition, An abridgement of the practice of midwifery: and a set of anatomical tables.

An abridgement of Smellie's obstetrical writings, with plates engraved by the editor and publisher, John Norman, was the first medical book with engraved illustrations published in North America, and also the first bo…

1842 –1843

#6033

Invention du spéculum plein et brisé.

Description of the speculum invented by Récamier.

1857

#6043

System of practical surgery. 4th ed.

Fergusson’s vaginal speculum is described on p. 724.

1860

#6043.1

On diseases peculiar to women, including displacements of the uterus.

Chapter 5 includes a lengthy description of the “Hodge pessary”. See No. 6185.

1862

#2166.1

Notes on arrow wounds.

The definitive work on American Indian arrow wounds suffered by U. S. troops and settlers in frontier warfare during the Western expansion of the United States. Bill eventually developed a "Forceps for the Extraction …

1864

#6185

The principles and practice of obstetrics.

Hodge, nearly blind, dictated this superb textbook from memory to his son. It includes his concept of “parallel planes” at the various levels of the pelvic canal, and his placental forceps for the completion of aborti…

1866

#6057

Clinical notes on uterine surgery, with reference to the management of the sterile condition.

A revolutionary and controversial work, written in Paris while Sims was in voluntary exile because of the U.S. Civil War, and first serialized in Lancet 2 (1864) and 1 (1865). Includes, pp. 16-18, the description of S…

1867

#11641

Catalogue and report of obstetrical and other instruments exhibited at the Conversazione of the Obstetrical Society of London...held, by permission, at the Royal College of Physicians, March 28th, 1866.

“ A key reference source for mid-19th century [obstetrical] instruments. Many of these instruments became incorporated into the Museum of the Obstetrical Society of London, the contents of which became the property of…

1869

#5610

Collezione della memorie chirurgiche ed ostetriche. 2 vols.

Rizzoli was Professor of Surgery at Bologna and an outstanding operative surgeon. He introduced a compressor for aneurysms, a tracheotome, cystotome, lithotrite, enterotome, osteoclast, and performed acupressure as ea…

1877

#6192

Description de deux nouveaux forceps.

Tarnier invented the axis-traction forceps. See also Ann. Gynéc., 1877, 7, 241-64

1879

#5615

Remarks on forcipressure and the use of pressure-forceps in surgery.

Spencer Wells forceps.

1882

#6283

The Chamberlens and the midwifery forceps.

1887

#6286

Histoire des accouchements chez tous les peuples.

182-page appendix: "L'arsenal obstétrical", containing numerous illustrations of instruments, at end. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1916

#6219

Ueber die Anlegung der Zange am nicht rotierten Kopf mit Beschreibung eines neuen Zangenmodelles und einer neuen Anlegungsmethode.

Kielland forceps. English translation and historical background in E.P. Jones, Kielland’s forceps, London, 1952.

1920

#12489

The prophylactic forceps operation.

DeLee's advocacy of prophylactic forceps delivery made forceps deliveries more common. It remains probably his most controversial contribution to obstetrics. "At a meeting of the American Gynecological Society in 1920…

1929

#6299.1

Obstetric forceps, its history and evolution.

1938

#2682.51

The history of the forceps: An investigation on the occurrence, evolution, and use of the forceps from prehistoric times to the present (with a summary in Danish). Translated by William Ernest Calvert.

Not limited to the obstetric forceps.

1947

#6311

The secret instrument. The birth of the midwifery forceps.

Reprinted with No. 6311.5, San Francisco, Norman Publishing, 1989.

1949

#6310

The development of gynaecological surgery and instruments… from the Hippocratic age to the Antiseptic period.

Reprint, San Francisco, Norman Publishing, 1990.

2000

#6904

The obstetrician’s armamentarium: Historical obstetric instruments and their inventors.

2013

#7501

Imaging and imagining the fetus: The development of obstetric ultrasound.