The celebrated Carl Wenzel, of Frankfort, was the first in Germany who declared himself in favour of the operation. Kraus and Weidemann followed, the former two having performed it with complete success. The favourable results also in the hands of English practitioners and its increasing reputation quickly silenced the virulent abuse which was levelled at it by Stein, jun., and some other German authorities; the celebrated Elias von Siebold, of Berlin, who had first opposed it, candidly confessed his error and became one of its earliest supporters. Increasing experience showed that it could scarcely be looked upon as a dangerous operation for the mother, and that in by far the majority of instances it was also successful as regarded the child. Professor Kilian, in his work on operative midwifery, has collected the results of no less than 161 cases of artificial premature labour. (_Operative Geburtshülfe_, erster band, p. 298.) Of these, 72 occurred in England, 79 in Germany, 7 in Italy, and 3 in Holland: of these cases, 115 children were born alive and 46 dead; of the 115 living children, 73 continued alive and healthy; 8 of the mothers died after the operation, but of these, 5 were evidently from diseases which had nothing to do with the operation. The most unfavourable circumstances under which the operation can be undertaken are, where the child presents with the arm or shoulder: here it will require turning, which, in many cases, owing to the faulty form and inclination of the pelvis, cannot be effected without considerable difficulty, and greatly diminishing the chances of the child being born alive. With this exception we cannot see why it should not be as favourable as labour at the full term of pregnancy; it is far less dangerous than other species of premature labour, for the hæmorrhages, which are so apt to attend them, are never known to occur here. This mode of delivery has not only been proposed in cases of contracted pelvis: "There is another situation," says Dr. Denman, "in which I have proposed and tried with success the method of bringing on premature labour. Some women who readily conceive, proceed regularly in their pregnancy till they approach the full period, when, without any apparently adequate cause, they have been repeatedly seized with rigour and the child has instantly died, though it may not have been expelled for some weeks afterwards. In two cases of this kind, I have proposed to bring on premature labour, when I was certain the child was living, and have succeeded in preserving the children without hazard to the mothers." (_Introduction to the Practice of Midwifery_, 2d ed. vol. ii. p. 180.)