The treatment is the same as in the former case. Delivery must be effected as soon as possible, and the patient kept still and cool to avoid inflammation. _It is generally thought that the greater part of these accidents result from improper treatment, and particularly from using instruments._ SECTION VIII. OPERATIONS WITH THE HAND AND WITH INSTRUMENTS. CHAPTER XXIV. OPERATIONS WITH INSTRUMENTS. The use of instruments in effecting delivery is a last resort to save life, and ought to be intrusted only to persons of skill; it may therefore be thought unnecessary to treat of them in the present work, and indeed I should not have done so but for the purpose of satisfying the natural curiosity of females themselves. The greater part of the dread they now experience where instruments are needed, arises from ignorance of their nature and mode of action. At the present time nearly all the instruments used, in competent hands, are comparatively safe and harmless, and if females generally understood how they operated, much less fear would be excited by their use. Years ago, when cutting and tearing instruments were employed, in nearly every case of difficulty, the lamentable results which followed fully justified the fears experienced, but at the present day such things are seldom seen, except in medical museums, the same purpose being much better effected by simpler and more harmless apparatus. I wish therefore simply to give a brief explanation of the structure, and mode of action, of the instruments now chiefly employed, and to show the extent of their application and the results which have followed from it. THE FORCEPS. The forceps are intended to take hold of the fœtus, and assist us to draw it into the world when the natural forces are inadequate, and no hold can be obtained by the hands. They were first invented about the year 1650, by an English surgeon named Chamberlin, who made a secret of his invention and realized a large fortune from it. Since that time they have been modified in various ways, by different practitioners, but still remain essentially the same as when first used. The most usual form, and probably the best, is that represented below: [Illustration: PLATE L. Fig. 1. Fig. 2.] It consists of two blades articulated by a button, or screw joint, so that they can be easily separated and again adjusted,--Fig. 1. Each blade is cut out in the middle, and curved, as seen in Fig. 2.