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Bedford's birthing
forceps with ebony handles and finger holes on either side by Tieman. George
Tiemann's American Armamentarium Chirugicum on Page 63 in Appendix
three says:
"Tiemann is spelled alternately with
one or two n's suggesting either that he did not settle on a correct
version until after 1830 (similar discrepancies occur in city
directories of the period), or that subcontractors misspelled his
name". The Catholic
Encyclopedia says of Gunning S. Bedford: "He spent two years in
foreign study and in 1833, when only twenty-six years of age, became
professor of obstetrics in Charleston Medical College. From here he
accepted a professorship in the Albany Medical College. He went to
New York in 1836 and four years later founded the University Medical
College, which became a great success." Das puts the Bedford
Forceps under the date 1846 but goes on to say
"The following description of Gunning
S Bedford's forceps appears in Chailley's practical treatment of
midwifery edited by Bedford (1846)".
So Das' dating of these forceps might have been based on the
write-up of 1846 and does not rule out the possibility that the
forceps could have been made earlier. Certainly the description in
Tiemann's Appendix three suggests that this type of mark is more
likely to have been made closer to the 1830s, although the
misspelling of Tiemann by a subcontractor could of course have
occurred at any time and this seem just as likely. |
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