The Tarnier bronze pelvis
One of the teaching tools acquired for the theoretical lessons for the future midwives was an articulated Tarnier bronze pelvis, which is still preserved in the museum at the Hospital de Santa Cristina. It is a very realistic copy of a pelvis, articulated at the sacrum and mounted on a wooden plank. The sacrum was in turn articulated using a metal rod which could be adjusted on a lineal scale, calibrated to measure the anteroposterior diameter of the osseous birth canal. As can be seen on the plaque with the calibrated scale, the piece bears the name Collin, a well-known company which specialised in making medical and surgical equipment. The model, which was originally commercialised in the 19th century, still appeared in the Collin’s catalogue in 1935. Collin was the continuation of Charriere, founded in 1820.
This same articulated bronze model of a pelvis appears on page 16 of L’arsenal Obstétrical, a book published by Witkowski in 1887. The same page shows a similar model to the Tarnier pelvis, but this is the Mathieu model.
As José Gálvez Ginachero wrote in the first memoirs of the Casa de Salud de Santa Cristina, published in 1927 and summarizing the work in the centre over the first three years, the Tarnier bronze pelvis was used to study possible pelvic problems. It was important knowledge for the students to understand when a delivery was abnormal and it was necessary to find a doctor to help solve possible dystocia.
Etienne Tarnier (1828-1897) was a French obstetrician, known for modifying some forceps which he named after himself, although he also designed many more obstetric instruments. His doctoral thesis focused on «puerperal fever», proving that deaths from this were greater in maternity hospitals than in deliveries at home, and advocating measures of asepsis and antisepsis.