VIRGINITY
Fig. 22.—Deflorated hymen, after parturition, in adult woman.
(Glaister.)
There is no one sign which may be considered as an absolute test for virginity. The presence or absence of the hymen is of no probative value one way or the other. Its very existence has been denied by Paré, Buffon, and others. It may be absent as the result of disease, or as the result of a surgical operation to allow of the free discharge of the menstrual flow. Its presence is no bar to conception; and cases are on record where it has been found necessary to incise it, to allow of the passage of the fœtus into the world. In fact, women who have been prostitutes for years have possessed to the last uninjured hymens. The changes in the breasts which proceed from impregnation do not occur where only defloration has taken place. The rugose condition of the vagina is only affected by the first birth, and not by sexual intercourse.
What has been said of the above signs as tests for virginity may be said of a host of others which from time to time have, with varying success, been advanced as aids to the diagnosis. Casper, however, considers “that where a forensic physician FINDS A HYMEN STILL PRESERVED, EVEN ITS EDGES NOT BEING TORN, AND ALONG WITH IT—in young persons—A VIRGIN CONDITION OF THE BREASTS AND EXTERNAL GENITALS, HE IS THEN JUSTIFIED IN GIVING A POSITIVE OPINION AS TO THE EXISTENCE OF VIRGINITY, and vice versa.”
CHAPTER XII
PREGNANCY
It not infrequently happens that a medical man is called upon to make an examination of a woman for legal purposes, in order to decide—(a) The existence of an alleged pregnancy. (b) The possibility of a previous pregnancy. (c) As to the existence of concealed pregnancy.
The following are some of the reasons why pregnancy may be feigned: