ABSTRACT

The vectis was specifically associated with practitioners in the City of London: first John Bamber, then Joshua Cole, Moses Griffith, Starkey Middleton and John Ford. Forceps man-midwifery and Deventerian man-midwifery were in more or less open contest from 1716 until about 1750; the significance of the fillet was relatively shadowy, but its presence was at least acknowledged by some participants in the unfolding struggle. Yet it seems that the vectis was meanwhile being quietly used by Bamber, and from about 1733 by Middleton, without anyone else suspecting that there had been another Chamberlen secret apart from the forceps. In the early 1750s some slight awareness flickered of the existence of the vectis or of Bamber's passing the instrument on to a wider circle, but this soon died away. When the Roonhuysen vectis was mentioned in Smellie's preface, most British observers remained unaware of the vectis; and Bamber's heirs, like Bamber himself before them, kept their secret and avoided public contests.