Content area
Full Text
Adolphe Pinard was the eldest of five sons born to peasant farmers in the town of Mery-sur-Seine in the Champagne region of France. As a lad he was influenced to train in medicine by a local country doctor, Dr Bacquias. In June 1862 at the age of 18 he left for Paris. There he was helped by a cousin who, as a saddler, was responsible for supplying harnesses for the horses of the Faculté de Médecine, and also by a pharmacist in whose house he had obtained lodgings. At the medical school he got to know an anatomy aide, Farabeuf, who recognised his talent and took him under his wing, first becoming his teacher and later his collaborator in research on pelvic deformity and symphysiotomy.
On qualifying as a doctor, Pinard joined the Faculté de Médecine, and in 1871 at the age of 27 became an intern to Professor Stéphane Tarnier, the grand master of French obstetrics. His progress was rapid. Nominated agrégé in 1878 at the age of 34, he became accoucheur des hôpitaux in 1882, and finally, on the retirement of Pajot in 1890, was appointed Professor of Clinical Obstetrics in the Faculté at the age of 45 (fig 1). In 1892 he was elected a member of the Académie de Médecine. Although eventually retiring from his distinguished leadership of the Clinique Baudelocque in 1914, he remained active right up to his death in 1934 at the age of 90. 1- 4
Adolphe Pinard (1844-1934).
In 1874 Pinard published his thesis on congenital malformations of the pelvis, developing his own methods of measurement using a pelvimeter and a pelvigraph. In 1873 at Tarnier's suggestion he had started to study in depth the neglected field of abdominal palpation, and in 1878 published his observations in A treatise on abdominal palpation as applied to obstetrics, and version by external manipulation . 5 In this slim classic text which was translated into English and Spanish, Pinard laid down clear guidelines for abdominal palpation of the fetus, stressing the need for warm hands and the importance of an empty bladder and rectum. He wrote: " ... I have endeavoured to simplify the method, to render it rational and make it rest on the exact knowledge of...