2021/11/12 by Helen Partridge
Arts and Humanities · #Medical History and Innovations #History of Medicine Studies
paper · doi:10.4324/9781003249603-22
openalex publication_date 2021/11/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2025/11/06
In the annals of the obstetric art there is no more fascinating chapter than that relating to the introduction of the obstetric forceps. The forceps described by these various writers were crude affairs, the blades being solid and the two joined at a fixed point, and therefore they could be introduced together only, and then adjusted about the head. A moment’s thought will enable one to appreciate how difficult this may have been in many cases, and as a result how limited was the field of usefulness of the instrument. The pelvic curve was added to the instrument by Levret, about 1747, and has been almost universally retained in the later instruments. Since 1877 there has been no noteworthy advance either in the construction or technique of the forceps, and the history of the instrument may be said to end with the great addition of Tarnier.