173. Possibility of rape on adult female. The following cases seem to disprove the accuracy of the general opinion, and bear strong internal evidence of credibility. On the 22nd of March, 1849, a girl twenty years of age, unmarried, and of virtuous character, returning home from an errand to a neighboring village, was met in the pathway through a wood by a young soldier, twenty-two years of age, with whom she had previously a slight acquaintance. He asked her to let him accompany her a little way on the road, to which she consented. After having gone a short distance, the soldier proposed to her to go with him into the bushes. He made an effort to force her, but did not succeed. He kept his arm around her body, however, and seizing a favorable opportunity, suddenly raised her from the ground, and, with one hand confining her arms behind her back, threw her down, and with the other pulling up her clothes, prepared to effect his purpose. Upon her beseeching him to let her hands free, he did so, when she again made repeated efforts to get loose from him. He succeeded, however, in again securing her hands, and now lay with all his weight upon her, and endeavored with his knees to separate her limbs, but, with a last effort, she freed her hands and seized him by the privates. She would not let go until he promised to desist. He did so; when, as she attempted to rise, he caught her by the leg, and throwing her back, finally succeeded, by perseverance, in securing her hands and separating her limbs, after which he fully accomplished his purpose. All this was done without blows or any unnecessary violence. A witness who passed by after it was over, testified that he heard them quarrelling together, that the girl was crying, and the young man endeavoring to smooth her disordered dress. Upon her return home, she informed her mother, with many tears, of what had happened, upon which her father insisted upon her going to the parish priest, who lived about a mile distant, which journey she accomplished, though not without considerable pain and difficulty. Medical examination was had three days after the occurrence. The traces of a recently ruptured hymen were found, but other marks of violence were very trifling. There were no spots of blood upon her linen, but some traces bearing a resemblance to seminal spots were found. It further appeared that she was strong and healthy, and, it having been suggested to her that she had probably lost her breath in ascending the hill, and hence had been easily overpowered, she said no, she had entirely recovered her breath. The place was examined which she had indicated as the scene of the outrage, and evident marks of a struggle were found. The woman's statement was entirely unaf

VOL. III. MED. JUR.-9.

fected by the cross-examination, while the prisoner contradicted himself repeatedly during the trial. He was sentenced to five years' imprisonment.1

The following very analogous case is reported by Casper, who pronounces it one of the most instructive he had ever met with, because it appears to show that a strong, healthy, and fully grown maiden may be violated by a single man. On the 16th of January the accused enticed the girl, who was twenty-five years of age, into the park near Berlin, and, having vainly endeavored, owing to her struggles, to accomplish his purpose by forcing her against a tree, he seized her by the body and threw her upon the ground, where, being deprived, as she alleged, of all power of resistance, he flung her clothes over her head, and consummated his purpose. Nine days afterwards Casper examined her. She was modest and maidenly in her behavior, and, without any affectation, appeared to be very sad on account of her misfortune. The orifice of the vagina was found to be inflamed, and painful when touched or dilated, the hymen was entirely lacerated, and the swollen caruncles were very red. The fourchette was uninjured. Without any prompting, and only after some general questions in regard to her condition and feelings, she stated that for the last few days she had suffered less than at first in passing water and in going to stool. From these facts it was concluded that the woman had been ravished. At the trial it appeared in evidence that the policeman, who had been attracted by cries to the spot, found the ground frozen hard, and that the accused, even after his arrest, was in a state of satyriasis. He was condemned to four years' imprisonment.

From these two cases we see that some cases, at least, have been accredited by the courts where not only has rape been possible on an adult woman by a single man, but that, too, leaving only slight traces of the violence to be found even when the examination was made within nine days after the crime; and frequently the examination of the woman does not take place until after a much longer interval.

174. Evidence of sexual intercourse, in general. The evidence of sexual intercourse is also, in many cases, open to doubt. There are three points in which this evidence must be considered: (1) The anatomical changes in the genitals of the woman, produced by intercourse; (2) the presence of spermatozoa in or on the person of the woman; and (3) the presence of a venereal disease corresponding to that in the man by whom she claims to have been violated. In the man there is no evidence of his share in the crime except that result'Henke's Zeitschrift, Erg. Heft. 41, Casper, Gericht. Med., II., 157. Pp. 21-44

ing from the violence used by the woman in her resistance, and the possible presence of the venereal disease.

175. Anatomical changes.-The anatomical changes in the genitals due to rape upon a virgin are usually distinct; on a married woman who has already indulged in coitus repeatedly, or may have had a childbirth, the evidences of recent coitus may be entirely wanting. In Witthaus and Becker's Medical Jurisprudence3 an instance is cited of two married women who were assailed, and on whom the crime was completed in spite of resistance; and yet no marks of violence could be found. The genitals of the virgin show full, elastic labia majora, whose edges lie more or less in contact, covering the labia minora, a narrow vestibule, an intact hymen, and a narrow, folded vagina. The genitalia of the married woman show the effects of repeated dilatation in the separation of the labia, the tearing of the hymen, and possibly the obliteration of the rugæ in the vagina. Hence the difference of the evidence in the two conditions. If considerable violence has been used in the coitus, or if there has been great disproportion between the size of the organs in the two persons, there may be marked abrasions of the labia, vestibule, vagina, or even perineum. The indication which has been held as of the greatest value is the rupture of the hymen. This comes under consideration, of course, only where the female is represented as having been a virgin.

The other traces of sexual intercourse, such as turgescence and bruising of the parts, with heat and moisture, may, where opportunity for an early examination is given, be of some weight when taken in connection with other evidence. An interesting case of post-mortem examination, in which these signs were of value, may be found in Henke's Zeitschrift, Vol. XLVI., p. 41. The external genitals were found swollen and red, the clitoris in a state of partial erection, and the vagina turgescent and very moist. The mucous membrane of the uterus was highly injected, and the mouth of the womb open. In its cavity there was found a yellowish-white liquid of gelatinous consistence, and which, from its smell and other peculiarities by chemical reagents, was evidently semen. The dead body of the woman had been found lying near a public road, with the clothes thrown up over the face, exposing the lower parts of the body, and the thighs stretched widely apart. Other marks of violence were found upon the body, but the cause of death was forcible suffocation. This opin

ion, given by the official surgeon, was confirmed by the subsequent

'Witthaus and Becker, Vol. I., p. 437; Case of Reg. v. Owen et al., Oxford Circ.,

confession of the criminal, that, while violating the person of the deceased, he had endeavored to stifle her cries by forcing the clothes over her face.

176. Hymen may not be destroyed. The presence of an intact hymen is popularly considered as the seal of virginity; but from the medico-legal point of view this estimation of its value must be modified to some extent. The hymen is not always destroyed by the first connection. This is proved by numerous instances in which it has been preserved entire until the occurrence of parturition, a fact which proves, also, that it is not an insuperable obstacle to impregnation. Maschka5 refers to the case of a girl eighteen years of age, whose vagina was notably enlarged by coition, although the hymen was uninjured. This membrane was crescentic, thick, and fleshy, but as elastic as india rubber.

Dr. Roose cites the case of a girl fifteen years of age who was examined April 9, 1894, the day succeeding the assault. The examining physician reported the presence of excessive secretion, an abrasion on the vulval canal, and a hymen of the annular variety that admitted the tip of the index finger, and appeared to have been recently inverted. He gave a certificate of “recent penetration by some blunt instrument;" the man pleaded guilty, and was sentenced before the court of general sessions, of New York. Another extremely interesting instance is reported in the same article where Duchatelet, an eminent French physician, confessed his inability to determine whether two women whose lives had been notoriously immoral, for years, were virtuous or not. Still more surprising are the cases where, after abortions, or even after delivery at term, the hymen has been persistent. Steinhaus reports such a case after a four months' abortion; and Aschenbach has collected twenty-five, and Kanony10 forty-three, cases of unruptured hymen after pregnancy and delivery; and Hab

'See Kluge, Med. Preuss. Vereinzeitschr., 1835, No. 22; Ribke, Casper's Wochenshr., 1835, No. 2, S. 16; Strecker, Henke's Zeirschr. Bd. XXXIX., S. 218; Ibid., Scildbach, Ibid. Bd. XL., p. 210; Schmittmüller, Ibid. Bd. XLI., S. 172; Ibid. 1843, Bd. II., p. 149; Möller, Ibid. Erg. Heft. No. 32, 1843; Canstatt's Jahresberichte für 1851; Scanton, Lancet, Mar. 8, 1851; Casper's Vierteljahrsch., 1855, p. 93; New Orleans Med. Gaz. 1858, pp. 217, 220; Amer. Jour. Med. Sci., 1860, p. 576; Braun, Vierteljahr. f. Ger. Med., 1873, N. F. Vol. 2. p. 197; and Glasgow Med. Jour., 1873 (Gray); and Brit. Med. Journ., 1878, p. 862. Also Montgomery, Signs of Preg

erda, the professor of legal medicine at Vienna, lately stated11 that he was able to make the diagnosis of loss of virginity in only about 50 per cent of the medico-legal cases that he had examined in the last five years. He believes that in many instances it is impossible to determine whether coitus has taken place or not, unless the individual is seen immediately after the attempt has been made.

177. Intact hymen as evidence of virginity. On the other hand, an intact hymen may be taken as evidence of virginity in some cases. Taylor quotes the case of Reppingill v. Reppingill,12 in a suit for divorce, where the intact hymen was taken as proof that there had been no adultery. He also quotes the case of an assistant surgeon who, in 1845, was court-martialed for deliberate and false assertion of repeated connection with a certain woman. This was denied by the woman, who was about to be married. She was examined, and the hymen found intact, tense, semilunar, and not so tough but that it would have been easily ruptured. Therefore, the court ruled that the man was guilty of false assertion.

178. Hymen ruptured otherwise than by coitus.— The other side of the question must also be considered, that the hymen may be ruptured by other means than through coitus. Congenital absence of the hymen,13 if it occurs as an isolated defect, is extremely rare; rupture by masturbation is also very rare. Hofmann says11 that he has seen many cases of masturbation in imbeciles, but never a rupture of the hymen. Destruction of the hymen by accident or disease must also be recognized. Siebold refers15 to a case where a young girl who had climbed a tree to gather fruit fell down in such a manner that a stake, planted underneath, penetrated the vagina for an inch and a half, producing serious injury, and, of course, destroying the hymen. Taylor1e describes a case of a girl of six who fell on a tree, one twig penetrating the vagina, and entering the abdominal cavity. The girl died twenty-four hours later, of peritonitis. Now, if the child had been found dead, it might have been difficult to assign an accidental cause to the death.

179. Variations in form of hymen.-Another point which must always be taken into consideration in the examination of a woman for evidences of sexual intercourse is the great variation in the form of

"Haberda, Ueber den anat. Beweis der erfolgten Defloration, Monatschr. f. Geb. Gyn. XI. 69-88, 1900.

"Taylor, Med. Jurisprudence, 12 Eng. ed. p. 705.

13 Maschka, Handb. d. ger. Med., III.,

"Hofmann, Ger. Med. p. 119.

15

Siebold, Handbuch, p. 102. 16 Taylor, quoted by Peterson and Haines in their Med. Jurispr.