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Smellie, William (1697-1763).

Verhandeling over het bespiegelend en bewerkend deel der vroedkunde.

Te Amsterdam : By Jan Morterre, Boekhandelaar, 1765-66.

"Smellie contributed more to the fundamentals of obstetrics than virtually any individual. He described more accurately than any previous writer the mechanism of parturition, stressing the importance of exact measurement of the pelvis. He was the first to lay down safe rules regarding the use of forceps, and personally introduced the steel-lock, the curved, and the double forceps. He invented the "Smellie manoeuvre" to deliver breech cases"(Morton's Medical Bibliography, Fifth Edition, Edited by Jeremy M. Norman)..

"A Scottish obstetrician who was the first to teach obstetrics and midwifery on a scientific basis. After 20 years of village practice Smellie went to London to give obstetrical lecture-demonstrations to midwives and medical students. He delivered poor women free of charge if his students were allowed to attend the delivery, thus establishing a trend toward the attendance of medically trained persons at childbirth. Smellie invented an obstetric forceps but is best known for his description of "the mechanism of labour", or how the infant's head adapts to changes in the pelvic canal during birth" (Encyclopedia Britannica Online).

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