IMPROVED VAGINAL DEPRESSOR SPECULUM.
BY HENRY O. MARCY, A.M., M.D., L.L.D., OF BOSTON.The general adoption of irrigation during surgical operations has materially modified the practice of most American gynecologists in operative measures upon the uterus and vagina; the Sims' speculum and semi-prone position often being very inconvenient.The patient upon the back, with the hips well over the edge of the table, limbs held by the Clovis' crotch, or some modification of it, furnishes the most convenient position. The depressor in more general use in the one known as the Martin speculum, devised by Dr. A. Martin, of Berlin. This has been found inconvenient and objectionable, because the solid handle causes the drip from the irrigator to flow over the hand and down the arm of the holder, and the breadth of the blade is widest at the vulvar extremity. This often produces overstrain of the vaginal outlet, with