Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: the uterus. If it is in its normal position, then the os uteri will rest on the end of the left index finger, the fundus will be distinctly felt by the other hand, in a line drawn from the os in the direction of the umbilicus. If it be anteverted the os will point backward, toward the hollow of the sacrum, while the fundus will be felt by the index finger just behind the symphysis pubis, pressing down upon and perhaps parallel with the anterior wall of the vagina. The pressure of the index finger on the anterior wall of the vagina is not enough to positively determine this point, so it is essential to make pressure at the same time with the other hand just above the pubic arch. It will thus be easy to measure the size and shape of the body of the womb, for it will be held firmly between the fingers of the two hands, and its outline and shape may be determined in thin, unirritable women, and when the womb is rather lower down than usual. This does not apply to women who are built on a large scale, with great width of pelvis, with the abdomen well coated with fat, and made bulky, if not pendulous, by repeated gestations. On the other hand, the womb is sometimes so high that, with long fingers, I can scarcely reach it, and am utterly unable to twist the cervix right and left. If, in such cases, the young practitioner attempt to circumscribe the womb according to the instructions that I have quoted, he will find it impossible to do so. Notwithstanding what has been said to the contrary, it is generally difficult to explore, in this way, the posterior aspect of the uterus. It may be attempted, by passing the left index finger to the posterior cul- de-sac, hooking it up behind the cervix uteri, raising this upward, drawing it forward, and at the same time pressing the outer hand in t…
