was found dead in a field. There was a gash in her throat, and suspicion fell on the mother, who was arrested. It was observed that she was very cool. She stated that she had been out with her little girl near where the body was found and had been separated while looking for flowers. She denied all knowledge of the manner of the child's death. A long, sharp knife was found in her possession, and this was examined carefully and nothing was found on it except a few small hairs adhering to the handle and scarcely to be seen. When her attention was called to this hair, she said at once: 'Yes, I daresay there is hair on the knife, and very likely blood, for as I came along home I found a rabbit caught in a snare, and I cut its throat with my knife.' The knife was sent to an expert in microscopy to determine the origin of the hairs and their identity. Without any knowledge of the facts he said that the hairs were from a squirrel. And they corresponded with those of the squirrel fur tippet on the child's neck. The mother confessed her guilt."

The teeth may be a means of identification of the living as well as of the dead; their shape, regularity, and peculiar characteristics, such as the operations of the dentist, go to make them important evidence in many cases.

Where the remains have been mutilated and the body more or less dismembered the identification is then much more difficult. Here, medical advice is often of great assistance. A careful adaptation to each other of the various parts that have been recovered may assist in determining the probable age, height, and weight of the victim. It may also assist in the determination of the sex. Often, though, in these cases some important part of the body is missing, such as the head, which may throw some doubt on the identification. On the other hand, though the head may be unrecognizable as such on account of its mutilation, characteristic parts of it, such as the teeth, may be found and may help in its identification. Occasionally a piece of clothing or an article of ornament, such as rings, earrings, metallic buttons, may be found, which will be of assistance.

Where bones or portions of bones are the only material at hand, the identification becomes much more difficult, and often the best the medical examiner can do is to say that it is consistent with being such and such a person. He cannot say definitely that it is the person in question. When one has the whole skeleton it is easy to say whether it is he or not. The bones may have been buried for some time, how long it is often impossible to say, even roughly, although we know that the bones decay very slowly. The teeth are a good deal of help in trying to fix the age of the victim. As to its height, if the skeleton is entire, 7 to 7 inches may be added for the soft parts and the vertebral cartilages. Another

method which is not exact, but will give approximate results, is to measure the distance from the tip of one middle finger to the other with the arms outstretched. The most exact way is to accurately measure the parts at hand, and to estimate the size of the missing parts, making a proper allowance for the soft parts. The skull will often determine whether the victim was Caucasian, Mongolian, or African.

In connection with these various points careful inspection should be made as to the presence of deformities or mechanical injuries, and as to whether influences other than those of natural decay have exercised any action upon the bones.

Tidy's scheme of the details to be noted in the identification of a body, whether living or dead, or of the bones alone, may be of some assistance:

GENERAL EXAMINATION OF THE RECENTLY DEAD BODY

Surroundings of the Body.-Clothes; jewelry; all articles on the body or in the coffin; hairs grasped in the hand or free about the body. Probable Business or Trade at which the Person Worked.-Hands; injuries to the nails; stains.

Height. Weight.

Age.-Amount and color of the hair; teeth; the alveolar processes; the fontanelles; the points of ossification; condition of the epiphyses; the size of the bones.

Sex.-Genital organs; breasts; general conformation; length of hair, especially the back hair; the pelvis; markings on the bones.

Deformities.-Hip-disease shortening; spinal-disease curvature; talipes, wens, etc.

Marks, Growths, etc., on the Skin.-From disease-scrofula, syphilis, small-pox, skin diseases; surgical operations; tattooing; natural causes -moles, nevi, warts, pigmentations; from violence; from stains of blood, etc.

DETAILED EXAMINATION OF THE VARIOUS PARTS OF THE BODY

Head.-Note complexion, whether fair, dark, or sallow; shape and race type; the forehead, whether low, high, or prominent; eyes-large, small, color of iris, sunk or prominent; nose-short or long, flat, state of nostrils; ears-lobules, if pierced; mouth-large or small and if scarred in the roof; lips-large, small, or scarred; teeth-number, regularity, decay, false; chin-full, round, double, pointed, or receding; hairamount, color, length, if natural or artificially colored, if recently cut. Neck. Whether long or short, thin or fat; scars. Chest.-Formation; shoulders; sternum.

Pelvis.-Genitals, if normal or otherwise; in females, the question of pregnancy; if a skeleton only, whether male or female.

Tidy. "Legal Medicine." (Quoted by Draper.)

Extremities.-Arms-size and length; hands-roughened or hardened by work, or stained; fingers-short or long, nails; legs, if equal in length; ankylosis of joints; bowed; in-kneed; the ankles and feet.

Mutilated Remains. Note the degree of accuracy with which the parts fit together-bones, muscles, blood-vessels.

Nature of the Mutilation.-Whether the muscles were hacked or divided by a sharp knife; whether the bones were chopped or were divided with a fine or coarse saw.

After-treatment of the Parts.-Whether by time or by chemicals; by burning (examine ashes for phosphate of lime); or by boiling.

Discovery of a Skeleton or of Individual Bones.-Note the extent of the disappearance of the soft parts; the extent of the separation of the bones; the color of the bones; their state of preservation; are they human; sex-note the pelvis especially; do the bones belong to the same body; are any fetal bones in or near the pelvis; have any remnants of disease been left on the bones; were there any injuries of recent occurrence before death.

CHAPTER VII.

SEX AND AGE

SEX

The term "hermaphrodite" is used, strictly speaking, to describe the condition existing in one person of the presence of the organs of both sexes. Generally, however, it is applied to those cases where there is some doubt as to the real sex of the individual on account of some deviation from the normal type of genital organs. The true hermaphrodite may be considered as capable of self-impregnation, but no such case can be found recorded, and we will use the term in the broader sense.

The cause of this change from the normal type is found in the early stages of embryonic development, and it need not concern us here. It is often impossible to differentiate sharply as to the true sex. It is especially true in cases of children as the genital organs are not fully developed and local signs are lacking. In doubtful cases we can give only an approximate opinion, and even postmortem, a positive opinion may not be possible even after a most careful anatomical examination. The term "pseudohermaphrodite" is used to describe those cases of doubtful sex where evidences of both sexes are present, but one of which predominates.

Many of the so-called hermaphrodites have only apparent deviation from the normal type. The internal organs have their natural development, and the abnormality is only external. Male hermaphrodites may exhibit a more or less developed penis with the urethra normal, or opening at variable distances between the glans and pubes. The scrotum may be cleft, presenting a resemblance to the vulva, but there is no suggestion of a vagina, although there may be some slight depression. In these cases the testicles are on either side of the divided scrotum. are many cases in medical literature of reputed hermaphrodites. with such malformations are not necessarily impotent. The apparent absence of the testicles from the scrotum may be the only evidence, and these may have remained in the abdomen instead of descending as is normal. In these latter cases, if the testes are healthy, they are not. impotent.

There

Males

Female hermaphrodites are more numerous on account of the doubt that arises as to their sex owing to the unusual size of the clitoris. The person exhibits more or less masculine traits, such as a varying amount of hair upon the face, which may even attain to the appearance of a beard; the voice is deeper and more masculine, and the development and action also. The sex instinct is usually more pronounced in them. The clitoris of the adult female is about one-half inch in length, but there is one case recorded of a girl, seven years old, who had a clitoris one inch long, and another case where it was two inches long. Where this hypertrophied condition of the clitoris exists the urethra shows usually more than one opening, and the vagina is often so constricted that it is almost imperforate. Such individuals exhibit unnatural sexual desire, and are often guilty of unnatural crimes. Many such female hermaphrodites have lived as men, following a trade, bearing a man's name, and even being married as men.

A case reported by Badaloni1 is of interest from a medico-legal point of view. The husband sued for divorce from Maura Faustina, who, he maintained, was a male acting as his wife. The husband testified that his wife associated with other women, and that he was ridiculed by his acquaintances. The divorce was granted and then Maura demanded of his brother one-half of the property of their deceased father on the ground that he (Maura) was a male. The brother denied this and brought a countercharge that his wife had been seduced by his erstwhile sister.

As has already been mentioned, the existence of true hermaphrodites has been doubted, and it is extremely improbable that true cases have existed. It is possible that one person might have the generative organs of both sexes-that is, the ovary of the female and the testicle of the male; the generative passages-that is, the tubes, ovaries, and vagina of the female, and the vas deferens, seminal vesicles, prostate, and efferent vesicles of the male. The coexistence of the organs of both sexes is termed true glandular hermaphroditism, and the coexistence of the generative passages true tubular hermaphroditism, according to Guéricolas.

Mixed cases, where the external organs are of one sex and the internal of the other, are few, and cannot properly be called hermaphrodites. One such case has been reported of a person, sixty-two years old, who had lived and been married as a male. The external organs consisted of a penis with the orifice of the urethra at the base of the glans, and an empty scrotum. The internal organs were completely feminine, and in addition there was a prostate in its normal position. 2

1 Wharton and Stille's “Medical Jurisprudence," Vol. III, 5th Ed. 2 Ibid.