“ A key reference source for mid-19th century [obstetrical] instruments. Many of these instruments became incorporated into the Museum of the Obstetrical Society of London, the contents of which became the property of the Royal Society of Medicine, who in turn presented it as a loan collection to the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1912.... Regrettably this outstanding collection was almost totally destroyed by bombing during the Second World War” (Hibbard, The Obstetrician’s Armamentarium pp vii-ix).