Franz Naegele

Franz Karl Naegele (7 December 1778 – 21 January 1851) was a German obstetrician born in Düsseldorf. His son, Hermann Franz Naegele (1801–1851), was also a noted obstetrician.

He earned his medical degree from the University of Bamberg, afterwards opening a medical practice in Barmen. In 1807, he became an associate professor at the University of Heidelberg, where in 1810 he was appointed a full professor of obstetrics.

He is remembered for "Naegele's rule", a standard method of calculating the due date for a pregnancy. His name is also lent to "Naegele obliquity", also known as an anterior asynclitism.

A variety of obliquely contracted bony pelvis where there is arrested development of one of the sacral alae, has also been named after him (Naegele's pelvis).

Selected publications

 * Beytrag zu einer naturgeschichtlichen Darstellung der krankhaften Erscheinung am thierischen Körper, welche man Entzündung nennt, und ihre Folgen. Dänzer, Düsseldorf 1804. Digitalization by the University of Düsseldorf
 * Translated into English by Edward Rigby in 1829 as An Essay on the Mechanism of Parturition.
 * Das schräg verengte Becken; nebst einem Anhange über die wichtigsten Fehler des weiblichen Beckens. (1839); translated into English in 1939 as "The obliquely contracted pelvis, containing also an appendix of the most important defects of the female pelvis".
 * Lehrbuch der Geburtshülfe (1843) – Textbook of midwifery.
 * "Ein Briefwechsel zwischen Joseph Alexis Stoltz und Franz Carl Naegele der XIII.: Versammlung der deutschen Gesellschaft für Gynäkologie 2.-5. Juni 1909 zum Empfang gewidmet von der Universitätsfrauenklinik Straßburg I. Els". J.H. Heitz, 1909 (Letters to and from Joseph-Alexis Stoltz)
 * Das schräg verengte Becken; nebst einem Anhange über die wichtigsten Fehler des weiblichen Beckens. (1839); translated into English in 1939 as "The obliquely contracted pelvis, containing also an appendix of the most important defects of the female pelvis".
 * Lehrbuch der Geburtshülfe (1843) – Textbook of midwifery.
 * "Ein Briefwechsel zwischen Joseph Alexis Stoltz und Franz Carl Naegele der XIII.: Versammlung der deutschen Gesellschaft für Gynäkologie 2.-5. Juni 1909 zum Empfang gewidmet von der Universitätsfrauenklinik Straßburg I. Els". J.H. Heitz, 1909 (Letters to and from Joseph-Alexis Stoltz)