the hymen, some of the rarer, fimbriated forms being easily mistaken for a ruptured hymen. 180. Seminal stains. The evidence from the presence of seminal stains upon the person or clothing of the woman is one of the most reliable evidences of rape. It may not always be present, for all that constitutes the crime of rape, including penetration, may have been completed without the occurrence of seminal emission. Moreover, even the demonstration of semen does not prove the crime. Hofmann cites the case of a murder in which the suspicion of rape also fell upon the murderer. He, however, pleaded that no rape had been completed; and as the circumstances allowed the explanation of a previous coitus, the murderer was exonerated from the charge of rape. If a stain is found that is suspicious in appearance, the only proof of its character lies in the demonstration of the spermatozoa, and this is often difficult, on account of the dirt and filth with which these stains are frequently mixed. The chemical tests for semen are unsatisfactory; so that the stain must be identified by demonstrating the spermatozoa microscopically. This is possible in both the fresh and the dried specimens. The spermatozoa are seen to be flattened, piriform bodies 0.005 mm. long; from the large end is a tail, making the entire length of the spermatozoon from 0.033 to 0.050 mm. Hofmann says that from the dried specimens these bodies may be identified for years. Bayard has recognized them in spots as much as six years old. However, the absence of spermatozoa from a suspected spot does not prove that the spot is not of seminal origin. The most valuable chemical test for semen is the Florence test. It has the same value in the test for semen that the guaiacum test has in determining blood. If the test is negative, there is no semen present; but if, on the other hand, the test is positive, semen may or may not be present. The test is really one for lecithin in a stage of decomposition rather than for semen, and so it will be positive in any condition where there is decomposition of a tissue containing lecithin. The test solution is composed of: A fragment of the stain to be tested is placed on a microscope slide, and to it is added a drop of distilled water. Let the stain soak for a minute or two, and then add a minute drop of the reagent, so that the two drops come into contact by their edges. Cover with a cover glass and examine with a microscope, and small crystals like those of hemin in the blood test will be seen. It is a valuable preliminary test, and of value, too, in old stains.168 Farnum has proposed a biological test for semen similar to that for blood. He injects semen or testicular emulsion into the peritoneal cavity of the rabbit, and, after the antibody has been produced, uses the rabbit's blood serum to form a precipitate with the semen stain. He has tried the test in several different species of animals, and finds the test to be eminently satisfactory, not causing a precipitate with the semen of other species, or with the blood of the same species. He finds the test to hold equally well in man. We can hope that the test will be corroborated and extended so as to take its place along side of the biological test for blood.16b 181. Venereal disease. The presence of a venereal disease in the woman of the same nature as that in the man accused is certainly suspicious if the woman is known to have been free from any such disease up to the time when the act is said to have taken place; but the incubation period of the disease must also be allowed for. The presence of such a disease is not proof of sexual intercourse, for such diseases may be communicated in other ways, as is well recognized; but it is certainly very suspicious. However, the diagnosis of the disease must be made with considerable care, for the primary syphilitic sores. may be simulated by a chancroid or even some nonvenereal ulcer; and secondary, or later, manifestations have not infrequently been diagnosticated when in truth, as later developments showed, the woman had some entirely different lesion, such as noma, diphtheritic ulceration, etc. Likewise the gonorrheal infection is not always one of clear diagnosis. The microscopical test of the secretion for gonococci is sufficient in most cases, but many recent authorities consider that there has been demonstrated (by Bockhardt, Naumberg, Lustgarten, Legrain, Oberlander, Ziessel, and Cowbry)17 a pseudo-gonococcus in the healthy urethra. These pseudo-gonococci have the same biscuit shape, occur in the pus cells, and decolorize with Gram's iodin solution just like the true gonococci (the diplococci of Neisser), though their growth on culture media serves to differentiate them.18 Hence, the usual demonstration of the gonococci by Gram's 16a See Florence, Du Sperma et des Taches de Sperme en Médecine légale, 1897; Also Richter, Der Microchemische Nachweis von Sperma, Wiener, klin. Wochenschr., June 17, 1897. 16b See J. C. Farnum, Biological Test for Semen, Journ. Amer. Med. Ass., Dec. 28, 1901, p. 1721. "Cited by Hofmann, p. 132. 18 Wertheim, Arch. f. Gynek. 1891, XL.; and 1892, XLII. Haberda, Gerichtartzliche Bemerkungen über der differential staining must be taken as a legal proof of the existence of gonorrhea, only with a possible reservation for the pseudo-gonococci. As proof of the existence of chancroid in both parties Hofmann suggests,19 that the Ducray-Unna streptobacillus may be looked for, even though it is not yet accepted by all as the cause of the chancroid. 182. Conclusions.- From the previous descriptions it will be seen how difficult is the proof of the charge of rape, and how its disproof is very rarely possible. Any general rules for the determination of all cases would seem inadvisable, and each case had best be judged on its own merits, according to the suggestions of Casper and of Storer. III. CLINICAL ASPECT Of rape. 183. Rape upon children in general.-Studied from the clinical point of view, the cases of rape may be divided into those on children and those on adults. Rape upon children is the more frequent form. Tardieu,20 in 22,017 cases of rape, found 17,657 to be on children; and Casper and Liman,21 in 408 cases, found 70 per cent in girls under twelve years of age, and 84 per cent in girls under fourteen years of age. Casper's and Maschka's22 figures according to age are as follows: prev This frequency may be accounted for by the ease with which a child's resistance can be overcome, and by the child's entire ignorance of the nature and consequences of the sexual act, and also to the alent superstition among the lower classes that connection with a pure virgin will cure a person affected with venereal disease; hence, for the sake of certainty, the youngest children are chosen for this crime. 184. Evidence of rape upon children; dilatation.— The evidences left after the attempt at sexual intercourse by an adult with a girl under the age of puberty vary somewhat with the age of the girl; but more still with the degree of violence and the frequency of its repetition. A full and complete connection between an adult male and a child under twelve years of age is, on the first attempt, manifestly impossible; repeated efforts, however, may produce such a dilatation of the parts as to render it finally possible. A case where the vagina of a child seven years of age became by degrees sufficiently dilated to admit the adult male organ completely is mentioned in Canstatt's Jahresbericht for 1851. But in the majority of cases the penetration is but partial, and in some cases the chief injury has been inflicted by the use of the finger. The truth of this statement is shown by the frequently uninjured condition of the hymen. In fifty-one cases of rape upon children, many of them under fourteen, complicated with syphilis, Casper found the hymen destroyed only seven times in those between nine and fourteen years, and twice slightly torn in children of nine and ten years of age. In all the remaining cases, viz., fourfifths of the whole number, it was entirely uninjured. 185. Injuries.-The American reports seem to give a larger per cent of injuries. Roose, in a study of 200 cases of rape in children in New York city, taken from the reports of the examining physician's of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and an article by Walker,23 found the vulva normal in half the cases, the fourchette destroyed in a somewhat larger proportion of the cases, and the hymen torn in 166 of 182 cases. 186. Marks of violence.-The usual marks of violence left after the attempt upon children are a swollen condition of the labia majora, together with an inflamed and painful state of the vaginal entrance, and a secretion from these parts of a muco-purulent discharge. There is also pain in urination and defecation. This condition may be illustrated by a case where a child ten years of age was assaulted by a man aged thirty-eight; the following signs were found immediately afterwards. The nymphæ swollen, of a dark red color, and very painful, the hymen torn into three parts, the vaginal entrance free, but of a deep red color as far as the attachment of the hymen. The child was feverish and had pain during and after urination. Spots of blood were found on the under-garment. In the course of a week the hymen was healed, but not united, the swelling subsided, but there remained a muco-purulent discharge for about two weeks.24 A yet fuller illustration is presented by the case of a child *Walker, Arch. of Pediatrics, Vol. II., Keller. Casper's Vierteljrschr. Vte pp. 35, 36. Quoted in Witthaus and Band, 1 H., 1854. Becker. under seven years of age, ravished by an adult. It is reported by Dr. McKinlay.25 At the upper part of the cleft of the buttocks, behind and above the anus, the skin was besmeared with dried blood. The vagina was lacerated in various directions. One laceration extended down to the verge of the anus, laying bare the rectum, and others upwards and laterally. In the cavity produced by the laceration was some fecal matter which had escaped from the rectum through an opening an inch in length, and situated three-quarters of an inch from the verge of the anus. The child gradually recovered, in spite of these frightful injuries. 187. Venereal disease.-If gonorrhea or syphilis has been communicated, there may be, in addition to these marks of injury, a urethral discharge, chancres, condylomata, and, if sufficient time has elapsed, buboes and constitutional symptoms. We subjoin here a few cases, showing the appearances we may expect to find in children upon whom rape has been attempted. X., a man of leisure, was accused of having repeatedly misused three sisters, Agnes, aged 12, Clara, 11, and Antonia, 8. In all three the hymen was destroyed; in the two elder, the vaginal canal was uncommonly widened for their age, but not in the youngest. The opinion given was, therefore, that all three of the children had been deflowered, but that it was probable that the youngest had been masturbated with the finger. The evidence of the children, and some witness, gave all the details of this filthy transaction. Several more cases of an exactly similar character are given; we will, therefore, not repeat them. In the following case the whole proceeding was seen. Ottilia, agen ten years, still retained her hymen, although this was inflamed and relaxed. The vaginal entrance was dilated, irritated, and very sensitive. An old man of not less than sixty-five years had, it was said, often abused the child, having first enticed her by the present of a silver penny. On the last occasion, when he was discovered, the act took place in a barn, and a witness observed it through the chinks of the wall. The opinion of Dr. Casper, founded merely upon the condition of the child, was that a complete penetration had not taken place. A journeyman baker, affected with gonorrhea was accused of rape upon a child seven years of age, of healthy constitution. The child, examined one month afterwards, was found to have the hymen uninjured, but had gonorrhea, and the mucous membrane of Brit. and For. Med.-Chir. Rev., Oct. Colles, Med. Times and Gaz., June, 1860, 1859, p. 535. A very similar case, p. 560. which ended fatally, is reported by Mr. |