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[The writer is disposed to regard it as a form | attempt to restore the supposed loss of tone in the of gastrorrhoea. In some persons, the secretion is muscular fibres of the stomach, and at the same so copious, that they can eject at pleasure consi- time to neutralize the acid secretions which are derable quantities of fluid, especially in the morn- commonly present. The particular medicines used ing before taking food,-or they possess what has with this view have been various combinations of been termed the faculty of vomiting at pleasure. the vegetable tonics with aromatics, and large doses (See the article INDIGESTION, Vol. ii. p. 639.)] of alkalies and the alkaline earths; of the former, Prognosis. Pyrosis in its simple form is particularly the carbonate of ammonia and its never attended with danger to life, nor does it preparations. Tonics of the same kind with the commonly even prevent the sufferer from pursu- mineral acids, particularly sulphuric, have also ing his ordinary occupation. The physician, how-been recommended for this purpose. The various ever, is frequently baffled in his attempts to cure preparations of iron and zinc have also been had it, and even when there has been a reasonable recourse to, but we believe it to be the result of hope of the remedial means having been success-general experience, as it has been of our own, that ful, a recurrence of the watery eructation has not unfrequently exposed its fallacy.

however such means may have counteracted any other coexistent symptoms resulting from dyspepsia, or have mitigated or suspended the painful accessions which constitute this affection, its recurrence has too often taken place as usual.

Treatment. The doubt in which our knowledge of the pathognomonic causes of pyrosis is involved, obscures the indications on which the method of treating it should be grounded and pur- Cullen distinctly states that all the remedies for sued with a rational anticipation of success; nor the cure of indigestion have been applied to it has observation even up to the present period in without success, and the late Dr. Baillie has left any satisfactory degree supplied the deficiency. it on record that, consistently with his experience, Opium will certainly relieve the paroxysm; and it had been little benefited by medicine. He addits various preparations, as well as other anodynes ed, however, that a drachm of compound tincture and antispasmodics, as hyoscyamus and conium, of benzoin rendered miscible with water by trituwith camphor, the compound spirit of sulphuric ration with mucilage, he had found the most effiether, and the aromatic spirit of ammonia, vari- cacious of any. (Lectures and Observations on ously selected and combined according to the pe- Medicine, by the late Matthew Baillie, M. D., culiarities of the circumstances of the patient, will 1825.) We know it to have been also a favourall be found useful for this purpose, but relief of ite prescription of another experienced eminent the paroxysm appears only to be a temporary ad- physician in the treatment of pyrosis. Astrinvantage to render it permanent, the intermediate gents, such as the compound powder of kino given state must be the object of our more particular three times a day in doses of ten grains, have been consideration. We have the warrant both of rea- considered serviceable in cases of dyspepsia in son and experience for concluding that digestion which pyrosis has been a prominent symptom. cannot be perfectly accomplished whilst the func- Linnæus, who had frequent opportunities of wittions of an organ so important to it as the stomach nessing the disease, recommended the nux vomica are subject, whether primarily or secondarily, to for its relief, in doses of ten grains three times a the frequent interruptions occasioned by the ac-day; but this has been regarded, and doubtless is, cessions of this disease. A morbid state of the a very hazardous quantity to commence with. pancreas we know also will materially obstruct We are not aware that strychnine has been subthis process. The regulation, therefore, of the stituted for it; but the preceding recommendation diet is a most essential point in the plan of treat-points it out as worthy of trial, in doses of from a ment; all substances which are likely to ferment are difficultly digestible, and manifestly productive even of temporary discomfort or uneasiness, and the farinacea should as far as possible be avoided. It might be even advantageous, and especially when the disease is endemic, to effect an entire change in the articles which have constituted the general diet, so regulating the quality and limiting the quantity as if the cure of indigestion, whether evident or not, were the object to be effected. Any deviation from the natural state in the functions of the liver or alvine canal should be corrected by remedies appropriate to their particular condition; but in the special plan of the treatment of pyrosis, it will be found advantageous occasionally to produce a laxative effect on the latter, and for this purpose aperients which occasion a sense of warmth in the stomach have been found most suitable; such, for instance, as the compound decoction of aloes, combinations of the powder of rhubarb with magnesia, the compound tinctures of rhubarb and cardamoms, and peppermint-water, the powder and compound tincture of rhubarb, with carbonate of ammonia and camphor mixture, &c. It has further been the practice pursued to

twelfth to a sixth of a grain every eight hours. The subnitrate of bismuth, suggested as a remedy in cases of gastrodynia and other painful affections of the stomach by Dr. Odier of Geneva, and favourably reported of by Dr. Marcet in the fifth volume of the Memoirs of the London Medical Society, in similar cases, was particularly recommended as a useful medicine in the cure of pyrosis by Dr. Bardsley of Manchester, in his « Medical Reports of Hospital Practice," published in the year 1807. His recommendation is accompanied with a detail of several cases in which its use was successful; and with the comment, that in pyrosis and disorders of the same kind it exerts a local and specific action upon the organs of digestion, restoring the stomach to a state of vigour and consequent healthy secretion, essential to the removal of the symptoms of acidity, spasm, and pain. Dr. Bardsley prescribed it in doses of five grains with from fifteen to twenty grains of compound powder of tragacanth, two or three times in the day; a mode which we have found useful in similar cases. Dr. A. T. Thomson speaks highly of it in combination with extract of hops, having found it, as he states, extremely beneficial

fiscation of goods, or a pecuniary fine. (Edin. Encyclop. vol. xi. p. 823.) In the state of New York, death was formerly the punishment for committing a rape on a married woman or a maid ; and it was also ordained at the same time, that if a woman had been ravished, and afterwards consented to her ravisher, her husband, father, or next of kin, might sue by appeal against such offender. These laws, however, have been repealed, the punishment altered, and appeals of felony abolished. The acts now in force prescribe the punishment of imprisonment for life in the State-prison, of the offender and his accomplices, if he have any, for ravishing by force any woman-child of the age of ten years and upwards, or any other woman. An assault, with an intent to commit a rape, may be punished by fine and imprisonment, or both.

in pyrosis, gastrodynia, and some other varieties of dyspepsia; and when there has been merely atony of the digestive organs without organic mischief, almost universally successful. Mason Good has spoken in high commendation of the internal use of soap in pyrosis, combined with opium if it should be attended with much pain; he refers the efficacy of the former to its decomposition allowing the alkali to unite with the acrid secretion, whilst the oil defends the stomach from the action of any acrimonious matter which may be present. He has not, however, mentioned the quantity or form in which he has prescribed it; but from the benefit we have known it to produce with rhubarb and extract of gentian in some of the modifications of dyspepsia, we should be inclined to adopt a similar combination in prescribing it for the cure of pyrosis. On the principle of allaying irritation, [It has also been enacted that every person who and thereby favouring a slower, and consequently shall have carnal knowledge of any woman above more healthy gastric secretion, hydrocyanic acid the age of ten years, without her consent, by adhas been recommended for the relief of pyrosis; ministering to her any "substance or liquid," which but experience is yet required to determine whether shall produce such stupor or such imbecility of it possesses any lasting power over it. The de- mind or weakness of body as to prevent effectual cided advantage derived from its use in cases ap-resistance, shall, upon conviction, be punished by parently allied to pyrosis, leads us to anticipate that it will be found a valuable medicine in the treatment of the latter affection. Commencing with a dose of two minims, we may gradually increase it to five; and it will be suitably prescribed diluted with an ounce and a half of water and a drachm of tincture of calomba every eight hours. In conclusion, we refer the reader to the article INDIGESTION, in which the various disorders of the stomach commonly classed under the term dyspepsia have been fully discussed, and particularly to the third section of that article, which describes pyrosis in relation to them, under the head of irritable gastric dyspepsia.

WILLIAM KERR.

RAPE. The high value set upon female purity, and the heavy penalty incurred by its loss, in the banishment of the delinquent from society, have led most civilized countries to inflict the severest punishments on the individual guilty of a forcible violation of the weaker sex. When we consider, on the one hand, the condition of a virtuous female thus plunged into an abyss of misery, a release from which by death has been voluntarily sought by many; and, on the other, contemplate the number of profligate persons who are found in all countries and societies, whose chief occupation seems to be the corruption and debasement of the female sex; we cannot fail to rejoice that the strong arm of the law should interpose its protecting shield, and visit with its severest judgments one of the grossest crimes that vice can perpetrate. By the law of England, rape is defined to be the carnal knowledge of a woman against her will, and death is its penalty. All classes of females are equally protected, the virgin, the married woman, and even the common prostitute is included, because she may at the very time have determined on a reformation of her former habits. In Scotland the ravisher is exempted from the pains of death, only in case of the woman's subsequent consent, or her declaration that she yielded of her own free will; and even then he is to suffer an arbitrary punishment either by imprisonment, con

imprisonment, in a State-prison, not exceeding five years.

In Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Delaware, and South Carolina, it is a capital offence. In Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Michigan, imprisonment for a term of years, or for life, is directed; in Louisiana, imprisonment and hard labour for life; and in the States of Missouri and Arkansas, the punishment is castration. (Beck's Medical Jurispru dence, 5th edit., i. 160, Philad. 1838.)]

In the case of adults, it is necessary, in order to constitute a rape, that the act shall have been committed against the will of the female; but in the case of children, in whom the power of judging between right and wrong is not supposed to exist, the matter of consent is of no moment, and the deed is equally criminal whether it be obtained or not. "A female infant under ten years of age is in law deemed incapable of consenting to any act, much less to her dishonour; the carnal knowledge of such infant, whether she yield or not, is therefore virtually a rape; but whether if the child be above ten years of age, it be also a felony, has been questioned. Sir Matthew Hale was of opinion that such profligate actions, either with or without consent, amount to rape and felony, as well since as before the statute of Queen Elizabeth; but in his Summary, the learned judge appears to have altered his opinion; and the present practice is, that if the child be under ten years of age then it is felony by the statute; but if she be above ten and under twelve, then it is no rape if she consented, but only a misdemeanour." (Paris and Fonblanque, Med. Jur. vol. i. p. 419.) The French code extends the period to fifteen years, and punishes the crime committed on a child of that age by hard labour for a limited time. (Capuron, p. 1.) "In New York the carnal knowledge of a woman-child under ten years of age is punished by imprisonment in the State-prison for life. In Massachusetts and Illinois, death is the punishment. In Virginia, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and New Jersey, impri

sonment either for life or a long term of years is directed. All these specify the period of ten years. The law in Vermont varies from this. It directs that whenever any individual over the age of fif teen shall abuse any female under eleven with or without her will, he will suffer fine and imprisonment." (Beck, p. 60.)

the jury whether they believe the deposition of the
woman as to consent or not. This, it must be
confessed, is a most difficult question to solve, and
it requires all the ingenuity of the bar to sift to the
bottom all external circumstances which may con-
tribute to prove the negative. Cases of a mixed
kind are also sometimes met with; as when a
woman will at first resist the advances of a suitor,
and even continue her resistance for a time, but
afterwards, from the excitement of passion or some
other cause, yields to his desire. This is a case,
if possible, more puzzling than the former, because
marks of violence on the limbs of the female, from
her previous struggling, may be evident, which
would naturally lead to the supposition that the
act had been accomplished by force. We confess
that we should be inclined to deal hardly with a
man under such circumstances, from the difficulty
of understanding what constitutes consent. The
act is committed in secret; there are no witnesses;
the woman is bruised on the limbs and body; and
her person is violated: it is not likely that a for-
mal question of "Will you consent?" has been
put, followed by an answer of yea or nay; and
yet, after the employment of so much force, the
man defends himself by saying the woman con-
sented, which she denies. The jury alone can
determine which is to be credited; but, as we
already said, appearances are strongly in favour of
the woman, and a struggle of such violence and
duration, followed by coition, amounts, in our
opinion, if not to a legal, at least to a moral rape.
Having spoken thus generally of some of the dif-
ficulties attending the investigation of accusations
of rape, we proceed to consider some of the points
upon which medical testimony is more particularly
required.

[It would appear that the punishment of death is awarded for this offence in only one State of the Union-Massachusetts. In Virginia, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, New Jersey, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, and Tennessee, the punishment is either imprisonment for life, or a term of years, or fine, or imprisonment, or both. All these specify the period of ten years. In Indiana, the age of the female is extended to twelve years, and the punishment is imprisonment for a term of years. In Missouri, a rape on a female under the age of ten years is punished by castration. In Delaware, the law directs a fine, standing in the pillory for one hour, sixty lashes on the back,-well laid on, -imprisonment for not more than two years, and afterwards to be sold as a servant for a term not exceeding fourteen years. (Beck, op. cit. i. 153.)] By the ancient law of England, the woman was required to make her accusation immediately after the commission of the outrage. At a subsequent period she was allowed forty days as the utmost limit; but by the law as it at present stands, there is no time of limitation fixed. However, although there is no limit fixed by law, public opinion demands an early discovery; and an accuser who has postponed her complaint for any unreasonable length of time, is listened to with great caution by a jury. In fact, this is a crime so easily charged, so hard to be proved, and so much harder to be rebutted, that it is of the utmost importance that no time shall be allowed for concocting a malicious tale, particularly if medical testimony is to be adduced, as a few hours are often sufficient to efface appearances that might have been evident on an early examination. Indeed, in all cases, the greatest caution is necessary in judging of the guilt of an accused party. There is generally no witness to confirm the direct testimony of the accuser as to the fact; the whole case turns upon the woman's assertion, and unless there is strong collateral evidence, such as a speedy disclosure to her friends and the authorities, and an early medical examination, we are of opinion that it should require the clearest and most unshaken testimony on the cross-examination to gain credence with a jury. It is better that ten guilty should escape than that one innocent man should suffer and however we abhor the crime, and would wish the heaviest punishment to overtake the guilty, we cannot help offering this caution to medical men and jurors, knowing as we do the depravity of the human heart, and the lengths to which it will sometimes go to accomplish the ends of malice or revenge. It is not impossible, nay, it The existence of the hymen is the sign upon has sometimes happened, that a woman who has which the greatest stress has been laid by some freely consented to surrender her virtue will after-authors, while, strange to say, its presence has wards turn round on her paramour, and denounce been esteemed by others, among whom we find him as her ravisher. This becomes a case of the greatest intricacy from the fact of the principal feature (that of the venereal congress having taken place) being true. It now passes out of the hands of the medical jurist, and becomes a question with

Of the physical Signs of Violation. — These are the absence of the signs of virginity, marks of violence, tumefaction, or laceration of the pudenda, with effusion of blood, and bruises on other parts of the body, particularly on the breasts, arms, and thighs. It must be evident that the most important of these, that is, the want of the attributes of the virgin state, together with the injuries inflicted on the genital organs, as evidenced by inflammation and tumefaction, cannot apply to all women, but only to virgins; for in married women, or those previously in the habit of sexual intercourse, the negative signs are of course of no value, and the positive are not likely to occur. And this narrows our present observations to the signs of rape committed on virgins.

The investigation of this subject must be preceded by an exposition of the signs of virginity. This is a question which has occupied the attention of anatomists and physiologists from an early period; but it does not appear that any very accurate conclusions have been agreed upon.

Ambrose Paré, Columbus, Dionis, and Buffon, as an unnatural formation. However, at the present day, it is generally considered as an attribute of the human virgin. The hymen is a membranous or membrano-carneous structure,

which is situated at the entrance of the vagina,|p. 17,) remarks that the carunculæ may be found and serves to form a boundary between that pas- when the hymen is entire. Dr. Davis (Loc. cit. sage and the external genitals. It is formed by p. 101,) observes that the greater part of the circle duplicatures of the lining membrane of the vagina, at the basis of the hymen when that structure and is usually of a crescentic form, leaving an remains, and at the same locality when it has opening into the vagina at its upper part. This suffered rupture, may occasionally be seen studded opening serves as an outlet for the menses, and with caruncles of different origin; such extra in the average of adult subjects is large enough to caruncles in some cases being few and small, but admit the index finger sufficiently high up into in others large and numerous. He alludes to one the vagina, to effect an examination of the os case, which was that of a young lady of unquesuteri, without injury to the hymen. Dr. Davis tionably good character, who, in consequence of states that in breech presentations he has some- some irregularities imputed to a gay husband, to times introduced his finger into the vagina of the whom she had been recently married, became the infant without injuring this membrane. The subject of a professional examination: there preshape of this membrane, however, is various and sented at the orifice of the vagina on either side, uncertain. In some cases it is more or less cir- and in immediate contiguity to the carunculous cular, presenting through its centre a round aper- remains of the hymen, two large multifoliated ture of three or four lines in diameter. At other masses of structure, disposed in parallel layers in times only a part or exclusive portion of the orifi- such a manner as scarcely to fail to suggest the cial extremity of the vagina, sometimes the su- idea of a pair of epaulettes. These are the forms perior, at other times the inferior portion of it, is under which the hymen is usually found; but it seen to be veiled over with this structure. In should be borne in mind by the medical jurist some rare cases the hymen is an imperforate cir- that it is liable to certain malformations, with cular membrane attached to the edge of the orifice which he should be acquainted. It is commonly of the vagina in every part, so as to close the a thin membrane, easily ruptured by any large canal completely. We have already alluded to body introduced into the vagina. But it somesome of these cases in the article IMPOTENCE. times occurs that it is possessed of so much firmAnother form of the hymen is, when there are ness as to resist the intromission of the penis. two crescental portions attached to the more car- This unusual degree of thickness and strength neous structure of the external orifice laterally. may belong to a hymen composed of one uniform The structural tissue of the hymen seems in some membrane; or to that conformation of it termed measure to vary in different instances. "In most cribriform, from its being pierced by a number of fatal subjects it seems to be distinctly mem- holes. In this latter condition the membrane is branous, whilst in some others it partakes also of commonly exceedingly strong, and capable of a carneous character. Hence, probably, the very resisting the ordinary means of rupture. It is a different descriptions given of it by different state, however, that does not prevent impregnaauthors. By Soranus it is accordingly described tion, some cases of which are related by Dr. Davis; as being membranous; by Avicenna as veinous and as they relate to an important medico-legal and ligamentous; by Riolanus as carneous; by point, we refer to them, in addition to those alBerengarius as retiform, consisting of vascular and ready mentioned in the article IMPOTENCE. One delicate ligamentous tissue; by Columbus as a of these cases of cribriform hymen we transcribe thick substance; and by Spigelius as partly car in consequence of its great interest: "It was neous and partly nervous." (Princip. and Pract. usually narrated in his peculiarly terse style by of Obstet. Med. by Dr. Davis, p. 100.) In order the late Dr. Haighton, in his lectures on midto see this membrane in the living subject, it is wifery in Guy's Hospital. The subject of it had necessary to separate the labia and even the thighs been the lady of one of the physicians to that or to a considerable distance from each other; for to the neighbouring hospital of St. Thomas. It the opening into the vagina is quite closed up by was become matter of post-mortem history even the external parts in the ordinary positions of the in the time of Dr. Haighton. The hymen was body. The hymen is usually torn by sexual in- perforated by many small apertures; but it nevertercourse, and its rupture is attended by an effu- theless was so strong that it had resisted all the sion of blood; an appearance upon which so efforts of the husband to effect its rupture. That much reliance was placed by the Jews as a test gentleman, however, concealed his chagrin; nor of virginity, that the nuptial sheets were con- did he take any means to accomplish artificially stantly exhibited to the relations on both sides, what he had failed to do by the ordinary means. and preserved by the friends of the woman as Under these circumstances the lady drooped and evidences of her chastity. In case this token of became unhappy; but she also, at no distant pevirginity was not found on them, she was to be riod, became the subject of faintings and sickness, stoned to death at her father's door. After the and eventually of great abdominal enlargement, rupture of the hymen, its remains shrivel towards and of anasarca of her lower extremities. During their base into several small excrescences at the the urgency of those symptoms she was advised orifice of the vagina. These are thick, red, and to go to Bath for the benefit of the waters and of obtuse at their extremities, and from their fancied the other good things to be obtained at that celeresemblance to a myrtle-berry, have been called brated city. No remedy was found, however, carunculæ myrtiformes. They generally disap- even there for the lady's dropsy, and the symppear after frequent connections or deliveries. The toms became more and more urgent every day. caruncula which are found at the opening of the Finding no relief at Bath, and giving up all hope vagina are not, however, always remains of the of recovery any where, she determined, after a hymen. Dr. Conquest (Outlines of Midwifery, residence of some weeks at that place, to return

to London, in order that her remains might the more conveniently be deposited in the monumental vault of her family. Whilst on this journey, which she was performing in a post-chaise, she was seized with a severe abdominal pain, which she naturally enough ascribed to a spasm of the intestines. This colic, which was moderate and bearable at the commencement, became so extremely violent in its progress that she was obliged to stop suddenly at an inn on the road, where in less than an hour she was radically cured of her dropsy by becoming the mother of a well-grown living child. The hymen was then ruptured without the assistance of art." (Op. cit. p. 104.) We have alluded to these cases to show that it is possible for all the moral guilt of a rape to be incurred without the conditions necessary to satisfy the law upon the point, namely, intromission of the penis, &c. Besides these sources of difficulty presented to the medical jurist in malformation of the hymen, there are some cases, and probably not a few, in which this membrane has never existed at all; or having been at first formed of great tenuity, has been ruptured and destroyed in early life. Accidental circumstances may also serve to obliterate it, such as disease, improper practices, or acrimonious discharges; and instances are not wanting where it has been destroyed by the pressure of the confined menstrual fluid. From the cases alluded to above, it appears that impregnation may take place without rupture of this membrane, but in these instances perforation is not supposed to have occurred. It is, however, stated by Zacchias that intromission may be effected when a disproportion exists between the organs, when the hymen does not exceed the ordinary size, but is thick and hard, and when connection has taken place during the presence of menstruation, or fluor albus, without damage to this membrane. Gavard (Foderé, Méd. Lég. t. iv. p. 340,) found it perfect in a female thirteen years of age, who was labouring under the venereal disease. Ruysch (Observ. Anat. Chirurg. xxii.) has said, that if coitus take place during or immediately after the menstrual excretion, this membrane is often not ruptured.

From these several circumstances of variety in the original formation and appearance of the hymen, its power of resisting the natural means of rupture in some cases, and its yielding in others to the slightest force, we are inclined to think that the accuracy necessary in forming a medico-legal opinion cannot be attained by looking to this sign alone. We must, however, agree with Dr. Beck (Elem. of Med. Jur. by Darwall, p. 52,) that it would be difficult to support an accusation of rape where the hymen is found entire, although its presence cannot be considered as an unequivocal proof of virginity; for, as we have stated, it has been asserted by good authority that it is not always ruptured in coitu. An instance is related by Dr. Smith (Prin. of For. Med. p. 410,) in which an accusation of rape fell to the ground in consequence of the presence of this membrane. This occurred in the case of a man named Stewart, who was tried at the Old Bailey in 1704 for ravishing two female children. The evidence being at variance as to the fact of penetration, the children were sent out of court to be examined, and the eldest was found to have the signs of virginity.

The state of the vagina is the next point worthy of consideration. In young subjects it is extremely small; but as the female advances towards puberty, it becomes increased in its dimensions. In a healthy adult virgin the parietes of the vagina are remarkably firm and substantial, and from the only function it has to perform, that of giving exit to the menstrual excretion, it is rigid and narrow. The internal surface is lined with a mucous mem brane which is remarkable for the peculiarity of being much wrinkled or folded together into shallow irregularly transverse rugæ, the peculiar use of which is to qualify the passage for being indefinitely developed during parturition. These folds are removed by frequent sexual intercourse, and nearly obliterated in women who have borne one or two children. The dilatation of the vagina, and smoothness of its internal surface, are not, however, to be taken as unequivocal proofs of want of chastity, for these appearances may arise from other causes. There are disorders of which the tendency is to render it so, as fluor albus, chlorosis, or menorrhagia; and certain malprac tices will also occasion the same dilatation as sexual intercourse; and, on the other hand, coitus may have taken place, and the vagina afterwards reassume its contracted condition.

Generally speaking, in virgins the external labis are thick, firm, elastic, and internally of a bright red colour, with their edges so opposed as to ex clude the entrance into the vagina; while in mar ried women, or those accustomed to coition, they are soft, pale, and have an interval of greater or less extent between them. But these signs wil be found to vary according to the age, tempera ment, and state of health of the individual. Thus, in persons of a sanguine temperament, although in the habit of venereal enjoyment, the colour, firmness, and thickness of these parts will be preserved; and virgins of advanced age and weak leucophlegmatic habit of body, or those afflicted with leucorrhoea or menorrhagia, may present appearances which, if he above signs were supposed to be valid, would lead to a conclusion of an opposite character. The same observations will apply to the state of the frænum labiorum, or posterior commissure of the pudenda. Some authors have esteemed the integrity and rigidity of this part as a proof of virginity, but no positive conclusion can be drawn from it, for it frequently remains untouched even after parturition.

From the observations just made, we feel ourselves compelled to acknowledge that there are no anatomical signs by which we can attest the presence of virginity. Taken singly they are all fallacious, and even viewed in connection, they can only favour the conclusion as to the chastity of the female; but the converse is not established by the absence of these signs, as they may be all ab sent from causes already enumerated, although their absence may serve to corroborate the opposite opinion in suspected cases.

[M. Devergie (Médecine Légale, 2de édit. i. 345, Paris, 1840) has entered at length into an inquiry, founded on numerous examinations, as to the normal condition of the genital organs, in young children; in young girls near the period of puberty; in women who have had sexual intercourse; and in those who have had children;

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