Naegele

NAEGELE Franz (Franz Naegele, 1777-1851), famous German obstetrician of the first half of the 19th century. He received his medical education in Strasbourg, Freiburg, and Bamberg. After completing medical school, he practiced medicine in Barmen. In 1807, he took the chair of obstetrics at Heidelberg and remained there until his death. Naegele is the founder of modern teachings on the mechanism of childbirth; he extensively worked on the obstetric anatomy of the female pelvis ("Das weibliche Becken", Karlsruhe, 1825) and described that form of it which is known as the "Naegele" (obliquely contracted) pelvis [ankylosis of one of the sacroiliac joints with underdevelopment of the corresponding wing of the sacrum ("Das schrag verengte Becken", Mainz, 1839); see Pelvis]. Naegele proposed several new obstetrical instruments, of which "Naegele's" forceps (see Obstetrical Instruments, Table 1, Fig. 14), "Naegele's" perforator (ibid., Table II, Fig. 21), and "Naegele's" (curved) scissors are still widely used today. An excellent teacher, Naegele wrote a classic textbook for midwives ("Lehrbuch der Geburtshilfe fur Hebammen", Heidelberg, 1830), which went through 13 editions over 40 years. The literary elaboration of N.'s ideas was largely carried out by his son Hermann, who died in the same year as his father (Hermann Naegele, 1810-51). Thus, Hermann Naegele wrote a monograph on the mechanism of childbirth (1838) and a textbook on obstetrics. The latter went through several posthumous German editions revised by Grenser and was published twice in French.