_Turning.--Indications.--Circumstances most favourable for this operation.--Rules for finding the feet.--Extraction with the feet foremost.--Turning with the nates foremost.--Turning with the head foremost.--History of turning._ Turning is that operation in midwifery where the feet, which had not presented at the time of labour, are artificially brought down into the os uteri and vagina, and in this manner the child delivered. (Naegelé, _MS. Lectures_.) Besides turning with the feet foremost as now described it has also been proposed, as being safer for the child, to bring down the nates or the head, but these operations, especially the former, have scarcely ever been practised, and in most cases are impracticable. Turning, in the strict sense of the word, is that operation, by which, without danger to the mother or her child, the position of the latter is changed, either for the purpose of rendering the labour more favourable, or for adapting the position of the child for delivering it artificially. The delivery of the child with the feet foremost, by means of the hand alone, may be looked upon as a second stage of the operation; where, however, the turning has been undertaken on account of malposition of the child, it has been very properly recommended by Deleurye, (_Traité des Accouchemens_, 1770,) Boer, (_Naturliche Geburtshülfe_, 1810,) Wigand, (_Geburt des Menschen_, 1820,) and other high authorities in midwifery, that as the position is now converted into a natural one, (viz. of the feet,) it should be left as much as possible to the natural expelling powers; hence, therefore, under these circumstances, artificial extraction of the child with the feet foremost can scarcely be said to exist, the operation itself being confined to changing the position of the child. Where, however, the circumstances of the case require that labour should be hastened in order to avert the impending danger, the extraction of the child with the feet foremost, by means of the hand alone, becomes a distinct operation. The artificially changing the child's position into a presentation of the feet is indicated in cases where, on account of malposition of the child, the labour cannot be completed, or at least without great difficulty.