Page:Clinical Lectures on the Diseases of Women.djvu/32

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available conjugata vera, so as to measure directly the size of the conjugata, just as in the former case. The pelvis in this case was made out without any difficulty to be a pelvis which was generally contracted or small, highly deformed, with a conjugate of an inch and a half, and its deformity was rickety, the brim having a reniform or kidney shape. I have not entered in this case upon the woman's medical history, which of itself showed that she had a pelvis almost certainly rickety, and involving great difficulty and danger should she come to be confined at or near the full time.

The next case I have to mention is one of a commoner kind ; it is also a case of generally contracted rickety pelvis. This young woman was aged twenty-two, healthy looking, four feet four inches in height; had her last monthly period in the beginning of April, six months ago ; had previously been always regular. The legs are curved, nearly symmetrically, the convexity looking outwards to either side, the greatest curvature being at the junction of the middle and lower thirds. The abdomen presents the characters of a pregnancy advanced beyond the sixth month. The posterior superior spines of the ilia are not easily or well made out — two inches apart. The diameter of Baudelocque is six inches ; spines eight inches and a half, the left being an inch and a half higher than the right ; the crests eight inches and a quarter ; the diagonal conjugate is three inches; the sacrum is acutely bent in a posterior angular curvature below its middle. The spine has a slight right lateral curvature in the dorsal region, compensated by one in the lumbar region to the left. The induction of premature labour is recommended as soon as the child is viable, the conjugata vera being judged to be little more than two inches and a half.

You will observe the words I use in regard to this case : that the conjugata vera is "judged" to be so-and-so. In