Accouchement

First edition, 8vo (215 x 130 mm), [4], x, [1], xiv-xvi, 255, [1]pp., without half-title, some light spotting, cont. calf, rubbed, neatly rebacked retaining the original red morocco spine label. William Osborn (1736?1808), man-midwife. "With Thomas Denman, Osborn set up a private school of midwifery, and they taught together from about 1770 to 1782... Together Denman and Osborn were believed to have educated more than 1200 practitioners in midwifery. In 1783 Osborn published An essay on laborious parturition: in which the division of the symphysis pubis is particularly considered. Sigault and other Frenchmen had advocated the use of this operation, and in England William Hunter (1718?1783) had expressed a favourable opinion on it. Osborn thought it useless and dangerous. In this volume Osborn advocated the use of the crochet in cases where the pelvis was abnormally small."?(Oxford DNB).-