Smellie: printed rules for applying the forceps and teaching midwifery on a machine
A printed obstetric treatise of 1752 that made public exactly the kind of skill the Chamberlens' generation had hidden: the rules for applying the forceps. The author turned midwifery into a craft that an outsider could be taught.
The Scottish man-midwife William Smellie demonstrated the course of labour on machines made of wood, leather and real pelvic bones. His forceps acquired the English lock and a pelvic curve (an idea already being applied in France at the time), and the leather-covered metal was greased with lard before each application.
The machine solved an otherwise insoluble problem: custom, and in places law, kept the male practitioner away from normal deliveries, so there was nobody for him to learn on.
Why this date
high for the book: A treatise on the theory and practice of midwifery, London, 1752. The teaching dates follow the biographical note of the U.S. National Library of Medicine: from 1733 Smellie taught midwifery in Glasgow, in 1739 he moved to London. The atlas A sett of anatomical tables appeared in 1754. The sources give no exact date for the first use of the «machine», so the axis carries the year of the treatise rather than the year teaching began.
What it grew from
-
Obstetric forceps kept secret by a single family for over a century
improved · Confidence: medium
Smellie reworked the already existing Chamberlen instrument: he added the English lock, fenestrated blades and a pelvic curve, and in 1752 printed the rules for applying it, turning a family secret into a teachable technique.
Dispute: The explicit statement of descent («to the existing design by Chamberlen») was found only in a museum catalogue entry, not in a peer-reviewed historical work. Sheikh and co-authors and de Costa describe Smellie's innovations in detail but do not say that what he reworked was the Chamberlen instrument specifically. In Sheikh there is an intermediate link between the Chamberlens and Smellie: models of forceps appearing from the early 18th century, including the lever design of the Van Roonhuysen family. A direct line from the Chamberlens to Smellie is therefore not proved; what is proved is only that Smellie reworked an instrument already in use.
Link sources
- «Obstetrics Forceps», Worcester Medical Museums (2023) Verified 20 Sep 2026
Smellie added an English lock and fenestrated blades (unlike this very early pair) to the existing design by Chamberlen.
- Sheikh S., Ganesaratnam I., Jan H. «The birth of forceps», JRSM Short Reports 4(7) (2013)
His instruments included the 'English lock' to allow the blades to be inserted separately into the vagina and also introduced a pelvic curve
- Sheikh S., Ganesaratnam I., Jan H. «The birth of forceps», JRSM Short Reports 4(7) (2013)
The rules of applying forceps were developed by Smellie and in 1752 he published the 'Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Midwifery'.
- Banoub M., Hill M., Bonello J. «Childbirth's hidden revolution: The origins of obstetric forceps», Hektoen International (2025) Verified 20 Sep 2026
It was not until the early 1700s when the family secret was finally revealed through Hugh the Elder's son, Hugh the Younger.
"Verified" means that on that day the quotation was found at the address given, word for word. No date means we have not been able to open the source yet, not that the quotation is wrong.
- «Obstetrics Forceps», Worcester Medical Museums (2023) Verified 20 Sep 2026
Node sources
- «William Smellie», Historical Anatomies on the Web, U.S. National Library of Medicine (2003) Verified 5 Oct 2026
In 1733 he was admitted to the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow where he became a noted teacher of midwifery.
- Sheikh S., Ganesaratnam I., Jan H. «The birth of forceps», JRSM Short Reports 4(7) (2013)
The rules of applying forceps were developed by Smellie and in 1752 he published the 'Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Midwifery'.
- de Costa C. «The Smellie forceps», O&G Magazine 25(3) (RANZCOG) (2023) Verified 5 Oct 2026
Smellie introduced a pelvic curve to the forceps blades, and to make the application of his instrument more comfortable for the mother he covered the metal with leather and greased it with lard before each application.
- Kosmin J.F. «Modelling Authority: Obstetrical Machines in the Instruction of Midwives and Surgeons in Eighteenth-Century Italy», Social History of Medicine 34(2), 509-531 (2021), 515 Verified 20 Sep 2026
Male practitioners, often limited by social convention and sometimes by law from attending women during normal labours, could use obstetrical machines to gain familiarity with reproductive anatomy
- Sheikh S., Ganesaratnam I., Jan H. «The birth of forceps», JRSM Short Reports 4(7) (2013)
Although a great teacher, he was met with violent opposition from some midwives
"Verified" means that on that day the quotation was found at the address given, word for word. No date means we have not been able to open the source yet, not that the quotation is wrong.