William Smellie (obstetrician)

William Smellie ( born February 5, 1697 in Lanark ( Lanarkshire ), † March 5, 1763 ) was a Scottish physician and obstetrician. He was the first to put the obstetrics on a scientific basis and she taught as a discipline separate from the operational doctrine. He advocated the moderate use of forceps and established this safe rules. He examined the functional anatomy of the pelvis of the woman in labor and asked one of the first, a relation between the pelvic zone and the child's head here.

Life and work

He was the only son of a minor Scottish nobleman Archibald Smellie (1663/1664-1735) and his wife Sara Kennedy ( 1657-1727 ). He received the Lanark Grammar School his school education. After this he started an apprenticeship in 1714 then in the pharmacy by William Inglis.

It was followed by two years as a surgeon 's mate, this was a military rank in the Royal Navy for a medically trained assistants of a ship's doctor. In 1720, without a medical license, he was surgically and pharmaceutically in his practice in Lanark worked as a village doctor. On May 5, 1733 he became a member of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. Obstetrics was his special interest and he took careful records of all his cases. Nineteen years later he traveled to improve his knowledge, in the south to London. There he bought a house in Pall Mall, and began to practice in the poorer areas of the city. In 1724 he married Eupham Borland ( 1696/1697-1769 ), with her he lived until his death. She survived him, and died on June 27, 1769, both left no descendants.

In 1733 he entered the medical- surgical department at the University of Glasgow, University of Glasgow. Then in 1739 he traveled to Paris to hear a series of lectures on obstetrics, as in Jean Grégoire († 1679 ), a Parisian surgeon dealt with obstetrics. From here he moved back to London, where he founded a pharmacy and opened his own practice. At the same time he took in his house the former medical student William Hunter as a lodger on. The latter will be later known as the obstetrician and founder of modern anatomy. Unlike in England, obstetrics was in Scotland part of a medical education. Scottish doctors, such as Smellie, dominated the early British obstetrics. From 1739 Smellie lectured and gave practical demonstrations in London for midwives and medical students, including William Harvey. He used real-life models to illustrate his techniques. In 1741 he began - against a payment of three guineas for the whole course - lectures and demonstrations in front of professional midwives and medical students to hold.

Smellie was among the first obstetricians that determined the pelvic diameter directly by manual vaginal examination. The position of the fetus he checked by scanning the sutures ( sutures and fontanelles ) which showed him the progress of the birth. Rickets in his day was a widespread deficiency disease, therefore was to assess the rachitic pelvis of great importance. In contrast to William Hunter, he did not hesitate back before recommending a caesarean section.

The development of the forceps, he devoted much attention to the Smellie'schen Forceps were ultimately modified Levret'sche forceps. Its development resembled the latter in that they also had a skull and pelvic curvature, but the spoons were longer. A caesarean section was for him but only considered if a child could not be properly developed with the forceps. Unfortunately, the spoons were wrapped with leather strips in the pre- antiseptic era were the consequences of this source of infection is not yet sufficiently understood.

In 1745 he received from the University of Glasgow the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He published in 1752 Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Midwifery this based of the second (1754 ) and third ( 1764) overall volume of this work on 531 case histories, case histories which he put together with his colleague Tobias Smollett ( 1721-1771 ).

In 1759 he finally wanted to retire for the rest of his life in order to fully devote himself to literary work, so he returned to Lanark, where he lived on a small estate in Kingsmuir ( in Angus ). He died on his estate, and was buried in the church of St. Kentigern in Lanark Cemetery. His grave with an epitaph for Smellie and his wife exists to the present time.

Works (selection)

• A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Midwifery. In three volumes. ( 1742)
• A collection of cases and observations in midwifery. ( 1754)
• A Sett of Anatomical Tables, with Explanations, and of abridgment, of the Practice of Midwifery, With a View to Illustrate a Treatise on That Subject, and a Collection of Cases. ( 1754)