The handles of the English forceps are pieces of wood or ivory fixed upon each shank below the lock, flat upon the inside, convex externally and furnished with a depression or groove at the lower end for fixing a ligature round them. These handles were probably first introduced by Dr. Smellie, who seems to have borrowed the idea from the forceps of M. Mesnard, for the earlier English forceps, viz. of Giffard and Chapman, terminated in blunt hooks, those of the former being curved inwards, those of the latter outwards, a form of handle which has been retained in the French forceps up to the present time. There are two pieces of forceps, the _long_ and the _short_ forceps; the former for cases where the head is still high in the pelvis, the latter when it is at the pelvic outlet and approaching the os externum; the former with few exceptions being curved, the latter straight.[83] The forceps act in three ways, 1. by mere pulling; 2. as a species of double lever, by moving the handles from side to side; and 3. by compressing the head, thus still farther disposing it to elongate and adapt itself to the passage through which it has to be expelled. The blades should always, if possible, be applied one on each side of the head, the position of which must be determined by the direction of the fontanelles and sutures, not by feeling for the ear, as is usually recommended in this country. The ear can seldom be reached without causing a good deal of pain, even under the most favourable circumstances; in cases, therefore, where the head is so impacted as to be incapable of advancing by the natural powers, it cannot surely be justifiable to force up the finger between the head and the pelvis to ascertain this point, the more so, as the soft parts soon become swollen and more or less inflamed, and, therefore, little able to bear such rude treatment. No operation requires such an intimate acquaintance with the mechanism of parturition as that for applying the forceps: it is simple and generally perfectly easy when the precise position of the head and its relations to the pelvis are accurately known; on the other hand, it is not less injurious and painful to the patient than difficult and unsatisfactory to the practitioner. The most usual circumstances under which the forceps is applied, are where the head is already deep in the pelvis and approaching the os externum; in such cases it is generally required not so much for the purpose of overcoming an unusual degree of resistance, as for assisting the natural powers, which are becoming exhausted: the head is near the os externum, and therefore easily reached; and from there being little or no impaction present, the blades are applied without difficulty.