[History and sidelights on the forceps].
The author starts by showing that the first forceps were originally designed to handle hot metal in founderies and that the word derived from "formus" (hot) and "capere" (to take). The author, Professor Dumont, tries to trace the history of the development of modern forceps, discussing whether the Arabs or such well known authors of classical works as Roesslin, Raynald, Rueff and Rousset knew of the instrument or whether they just described instruments of destruction. Crainz in 1941 had written an article to discuss whether the early Romans had forceps and came to no firm conclusion. Speert in 1957 said that a live baby had been born earlier than the 17th Century, possibly as early as the 2nd or 3rd century of the Roman empire, i.e. over 300 years before Jesus-Christ, by forceps. The description is given of a bas-relief depicting forceps delivery but no one knows whether the bas-relief is genuine or not. The discovery of the Chamberlen forceps in 1813 at Woodham Mortimer Hall in Essex, England, and the lengthy description of how the Chamberlens kept the secret of the invention of the forceps over several generations is very well described. Then follows the story of Jean Palfyn's "mains de fer" which led later to Levret and his long curved forceps. Returning to England, the authors describes how William Smellie covered his forceps with leather so that the patients should not feel the cold metal or hear the clink of the handles. The author then quotes Dr Slop, who appears in Laurence Sterne's "Tristram Shandy" and who knew the Smellie's forceps. Sacombe was an arch enemy of instrumental delivery. The role of the Dane Saxtorph, and how Antoine Dubois delivered Napoleon's son, the future King of Rome, by forceps, is reviewed. Madame La Chapelle and her work as well as that of Scanzoni, and finally of Simpson who first used anaesthesia after inventing a forceps, continues the history. Great names such as Pajot, Tarnier with his axis-traction forceps and finally Barton, Piper and Kielland with their inventions are all described in this beautiful history of forceps.