James H. Aveling

James Hobson Aveling[a] (25 January 1828 – 12 December 1892) was a British obstetrician and gynaecologist, author and inventor of medical devices.

While he was still a child his father died; his mother married the clergyman John D'Urban a couple of years later, and removed the family to Hoo, near Rochester in Kent.

[2][3] He read medicine at the University of Aberdeen, gaining a medal in anatomy (1848), qualifying MRCS (1851) and receiving MB (1856) and MD degrees (1857).

[4] He briefly lived in Rochester, where Thomas Aveling was based,[2] before establishing a practice on Upper Wimpole Street, London, in 1870[6] or 1871.

[1][2] As a medical inventor he altered the standard obstetrical forceps, introducing the perineal curve to the handle (1868),[2][6] and invented shot and coil sutures,[6] the polyptrite (a device for destroying endometrial polyps; 1862),[2][6] the sigmoid repositor (a device for treating chronic uterine inversion; 1878),[2][6] and a glass-tube applicator for menstrual tampons.

[11] He was among the first to use chloroform as an anaesthetic in childbirth,[1] and was a proponent of using electricity to treat diseases of the pelvis, particularly uterine cancers, following Georges Apostoli.

He also wrote medical monographs including The Influence of Posture on Women in Gynecic and Obstetric Practice (1878) and On the Inversion of the Uterus (1886).

[2] In addition to his works in the medical field, he was interested in archaeology, and published History of Roche Abbey (Yorkshire) from its Foundation to its Dissolution (1870), as well as Fables, a book in verse (1886).